LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  O.JFORNIA 
DAVIS 


AMERICA'S   GODFATHER 


- 


General  View  of  Florence. 


AMERICA'S  GODFATHER 


florentine  dSentleman 


BY 


VIRGINIA  W.  JOHNSON 

AUTHOR    OF    "GENOA,   THE    SUPERB,"    "THE    LILY  OP 
THE    ARNO,"    ETC. 


BOSTON 
ESTES    AND   LAURIAT 

PUBLISHERS 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 


T-N    A   T  T1  C> 


Copyright,  1894, 
BY  ESTES  AND  LAURIAT. 


iHntoersttg  $ress : 
JOHN  WILSON  AND  SON,  CAMBRIDGE,  U.S.A. 


Une  nouvelle,  une  brochure  m'arrivent  de  Florence. 
C'est  un  pays  d'oil  il  nous  vient  souvent  de  grandes 
nouvelles :  en  1300,  celle  de  Dante ;  en  1500,  celle  d'Ame- 
rigo;  en  1600,  Galileo.  Quelle  sera  done  aujourd'hui  la 
nouvelle  de  Florence?  —  MICHELET. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  IN  GREAT  COMPANY 1 

II.  ON  THE  LUNG'  ARNO  AMERIGO  VESPUCCI    .  12 

III.  THE  TAPESTRY  OF  THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY  29 

IV.  IN  THE  MORNING  OF  LIFE 38 

V.  YOUTH 60 

VI.  CHOOSING  A  CAREER 79 

VII.  AMERIGO  VESPUCCI 99 

VIII.  THE  STRIKING  OF  THE  HOUR 116 

IX.  THE  FIRST  VOYAGE 152 

X.  THE  SECOND  VOYAGE 185 

XI.  THE  THIRD  VOYAGE 215 

XII.  THE  FOURTH  VOYAGE 235 

XIII.  A  FOREIGNER .     .  246 

XIV.  FOES  AND  FRIENDS 259 

XV.  A  SHRINE  OF  MEMORIES    ,  .  .279 


INDEX 291 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

GENERAL  VIEW  OF  FLORENCE Frontispiece 

PALAZZO  YECCHIO 4 

EXECUTION  OF  SAVONAROLA 8 

PIAZZA  DI  SAN  MARCO 12 

CAMPANILE  OF  GIOTTO,  AND  THE  DUOMO 30 

CHURCH  AND  PIAZZA  SANTA  CROCE 45 

PIAZZA  SIGNORIA 55 

PORTRAIT  OF  SAVONAROLA 62 

PORTRAIT  OF  MACHIAVELLI 82 

STATUE  OF  SAVONAROLA 100 

STATUE  OF  COSIMO  DE'  MEDICI 117 

GENERAL  VIEW  OF  SEVILLE 136 

THE  GIRALDA 147 

PIAZZA  DI  SAN  MARTINO 166 

PORTRAIT  OF  FERDINAND  OF  ARAGON 186 

STATUE  OF  AMERIGO  VESPUCCI 196 

STATUE  OF  LORENZO  DE'  MEDICI 219 

FRESCO  BY  FRA  ANGELICO,  IN  THE  UFFIZI  GALLERY     .  245 

STATUE  OF  CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS 255 

LOGGIA  DE'  LANZI    ,  283 


AMERICA'S    GODFATHER. 


CHAPTER  I. 

IN    GREAT    COMPANY. 

THE  young  American  traveller  arrives  in  Florence 
from  Pisa,  and  drives  in  the  prosaic  modern  omni 
bus  to  the  Hotel  Washington  on  the  Arno  bank, 
where  he  intends  to  stay  for  a  fortnight. 

He  is  the  child  of  the  nineteenth  century.  All 
the  possibilities  of  a  wonderful  development  of 
good  and  evil  in  the  future  of  a  new  wor]d  rest 
with  him.  Does  he  realize  the  responsibilities  of 
his  destiny  ?  In  personal  appearance  he  is  slight, 
active,  and  a  trifle  pale  of  complexion,  yet  he  pos 
sesses  a  wiry  strength  of  nerve  and  muscle  which 
will  carry  him  far  on  occasion.  He  is  the  first 
fruit  of  civilisation.  Will  he  retain  the  soundness 
of  upright  principle  of  his  Puritan  forefathers,  while 
tempering  a  certain  sharpness  of  look  and  manner 
with  the  amiable  consideration  of  others,  in  travel, 
which  forms  two-thirds  of  the  value  of  Christianity  ? 
Will  he  think  for  himself,  after  the  manner  of  the 

i 


2  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

young  French  girl  later  known  as  Madame  Koland, 
who  stole  out  of  bed  in  her  little  closet  to  read  stray 
volumes,  and  form  her  own  opinion  of  the  contents, 
instead  of  quoting  the  latest  belief  of  the  British 
in  London,  the  French  in  Paris,  or  the  Germans  of 
Berlin  ?  "  The  Yankee  Eagle  is  a  right  gallant  bird 
if  he  will  but  trust  to  his  own  natural  plumage," 
said  Charles  Kingsley.  We  are  told  how  gracious  a 
thing  is  a  man,  as  a  true  man,  but  that  a  real  one 
has  ever  been  so  rare  Diogenes  went  about  the  streets 
of  Athens  seeking  a  specimen  with  a  lantern.  Our 
traveller  stands  between  those  vital  elements,  the 
early  settlers,  Anglo-Saxon,  Huguenot,  and  Dutch, 
and  the  pioneer  miner,  farmer,  and  ranchman  of  the 
Far  West ;  let  him  look  to  it  that  he  emulates  the 
virtues  of  each  class,  and  stamps  his  own  individu 
ality  on  his  country.  He  is  undoubtedly  a  spoiled 
child  of  fortune,  born  with  the  proverbial  gold  spoon 
in  his  mouth.  Indulgent  parents  have  given  him 
every  advantage  of  education  at  a  famous  college, 
together  with  a  choice  of  personal  preference  in  a 
future  career.  Juvenile  brothers  and  sisters  receive 
his  letters  bearing  foreign  stamps  with  lively  inter 
est,  and  more  than  one  maiden  of  his  circle  of  friends 
wonders,  with  a  little  heart-flutter  of  doubt  and  an 
ticipation,  if  he  intends  to  return  home  soon,  go 
yachting  on  the  Mediterranean  and  the  Nile,  or 
salmon  fishing  in  Norway,  to  scale  the  Matterhorn, 
shoot  in  the  Indian  jungle,  or  make  a  tour  of  the 
world. 


IN   GREAT  COMPANY.  3 

The  following  morning  the  tourist  needs  no  guide 
to  sally  forth  on  the  Arno,  and  follow  the  quay  past 
the  Carraia  bridge,  the  graceful  arches  of  the  Trinita, 
and  the  quaint,  crowded  structure  of  the  Ponte- 
Vecchio,  until  he  emerges  from  the  narrow  and 
shadowy  space  of  the  Via  Archibusieri  at  the  Uffizi. 
There  is  an  aspect  of  sober  magnificence  about  the 
vast  building  as  sturdy  Piero  Capponi,  brave  Ferruc- 
cio,  Farinata  degli  Uberti,  and  the  warrior  Medici 
Giovanni  delle  Bande  Nere,  grasping  the  sword  he 
was  warned  not  to  unsheathe  save  in  the  cause  of 
honour,  seem  to  guard  the  spot  in  their  niches.  The 
Arno  flows  below,  catching  the  hue  of  the  blue  sky 
in  an  occasional  azure  ripple  on  the  tawny  current, 
and  the  height  of  San  Miniato  rises  above  the  line 
of  opposite  embankment  in  sharp  outline  of  terraces 
flanked  by  steps,  with  the  mosaic  of  the  facade  of 
the  church  gleaming  amidst  the  cypress-trees,  and 
the  bronze  statue  of  David  beyond.  To  pass  under 
the  arch  of  the  portico  is  to  have  suddenly  revealed 
that  marvellous  perspective  of  the  Uffizi  flanking 
both  sides  of  the  narrow  space,  and  the  Palazzo 
Vecchio  at  the  further  extremity.  Familiar  as  the 
locality  is  to  all  nations,  if  only  from  portraiture  in 
engraving  and  photography,  the  scene  has  ever  some 
new  phase  of  variety  and  beauty  to  offer  to  the  con 
templation  of  the  casual  pedestrian.  Thus  our 
Young  American  in  his  ramble  of  the  March  morning 
comes  unexpectedly  on  the  flower  show  of  a  Tuscan 
horticultural  exhibition.  Is  it  for  him,  the  child 


4  AMERICA  S   GODFATHER. 

of  his  century,  that  the  old  Flower  City  has  decked 
the  columns  and  portico  with  the  delicate  bloom  of 
pink  and  white  azaleas,  whole  sheaves  of  alabaster- 
tinted  lilies,  a  prodigal  luxuriance  of  multicolored 
camellias,  while  the  slender  tower  of  the  Palazzo 
Vecchio,  visible  in  profile,  soaring  upward  towards 
the  cloudless  heavens,  bears  on  the  summit  of  the 
battlement  a  red  flag  like  the  petals  of  a  poppy  ?  Is 
it  because  the  statue  of  Amerigo  Vespucci  occupies 
the  first  niche  on  the  right  hand  with  the  base  half 
veiled  in  feathery  bamboos  and  marguerites?  A 
military  band  plays  inspiriting  strains,  a  group  of 
Bersaglieri  officers  lounge  near  a  cluster  of  palms  in 
the  centre  of  the  pavement,  and  a  crowd  of  brown 
contadini  flocks  from  the  rendezvous  of  the  weekly 
market  day  in  the  adjacent  Piazza  Signoria.  The 
red  poppy  flag  flutters  on  the  graceful  tower,  the 
notes  of  harmony  rise  in  waves  of  sound  above  the 
hum  of  voices,  and  the  very  sunshine,  after  March 
days  of  rain  and  hail,  is  caressing  as  it  lingers  on 
the  statues  and  the  flowers. 

Amerigo  Vespucci  is  a  harmonious  figure,  draped 
in  the  folds  of  a  mantle,  a  half-column  inscribed 
with  the  name  of  America  on  his  left,  and  a  small 
alligator  coiled  about  his  feet  (cayman  or  iguana). 
His  smoothly  shaven,  rather  worn  face  is  slightly 
turned,  and  with  the  gesture  of  the  right  hand  he 
would  seem  to  protest  at  the  injustice  of  the  verdict 
of  posterity. 

In  the  adjoining  niche  the  Florentine  historian 


{o  Veccbio. 


IN   GREAT   COMPANY.  5 

Guicciardini,  of  dignified  mien,  points  to  the  open 
book  in  his  hand,  as  if  desirous  to  confirm  the  claim 
to  a  glorious  renown  of  his  fellow  townsman,  Ves 
pucci.  The  outspread  page  of  the  volume  which  he 
holds  may  be  accepted  as  his  own  history  inscribed 
with  these  words :  "  Amerigo  Vespucci,  Florentine, 
made  and  wrote  of  his  four  voyages  in  search  of 
new  lands,  two  by  order  of  the  King  Ferdinand  of 
Castile  towards  the  East,  begun  in  the  year  1497, 
on  the  twentieth  of  May,  and  the  others  under  the 
commission  of  Emanuel  King  of  Portugal,  towards 
the  South,  in  the  year  1501,  on  the  first  of  May." 
(Vol.  iii.  book  7,  page  171.) 

Beyond,  the  keen-featured  Macchiavelli  gazes 
down  in  thoughtful  mood,  as  if  about  to  stroke  his 
chin,  and  give  utterance  to  some  sarcasm  on  the 
follies  of  human  nature.  On  the  other  side  Galileo 
with  head  uplifted  scans  the  blue  heavens  above 
the  beautiful  tower  of  the  Palazzo  Vecchio,  with 
eyes  no  longer  sightless.  In  the  next  niche  Micheli, 
the  botanist,  wearing  an  ample  curled  wig,  appears 
to  meditate  profoundly  on  the  resources  of  the 
botanical  garden  placed  under  his  supervision  by 
Cosimo  de'  Medici,  or  the  classification  of  mosses, 
fungi,  and  lichens. 

The  Young  American  is  in  great  company.  Should 
he  choose  to  linger  here  for  an  hour  he  might  trace 
on  all  these  cold  faces  of  eminent  men  individu 
alities  noted  in  the  history  of  centuries,  in  the 
manifold  spheres  of  religion,  science,  poetry,  and  art. 


6  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

Earthly  pomp  is  firmly  upheld  by  the  astute  old 
merchant  Cosimo  de'  Medici,  Pater  Patrise,  and  his 
illustrious  grandson,  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  at 
the  further  extremity  of  the  enclosure ;  Orcagna 
calmly  contemplates  his  own  work,  the  opposite 
Loggia  de'  Lanzi ;  and  the  celebrated  doctor  of  the 
twelfth  century,  Taddeo  Accorso,  claims  considera 
tion  for  having  formulated  a  code  of  laws  adopted 
in  Italy  for  three  hundred  years. 

The  Young  American  dines  at  the  table  d'hote 
of  his  hotel,  and  exchanges  the  usual  small  coin 
of  talk  with  the  bride  from  the  Baltic  provinces, 
en  route  for  Naples  and  Capri,  on  his  left,  the 
valetudinarian  from  the  Eiviera  on  his  right,  and 
the  British  maiden  opposite,  who  longs  to  visit 
America.  The  tide  of  change  in  such  caravanseries 
is  too  rapid  to  induce  the  friction  of  national  pre 
judice  perceptible  in  winter  pension  or  summer 
resort,  where  pent  up  humanity  resembles  only  too 
much  the  zoological  experiments  of  incarcerating 
different  species  of  animals  in  the  same  cage.  Later 
he  goes  to  the  Pagliano  Theatre  to  hear  the  opera 
of  La  Guaranita,  with  its  tropical  American  setting. 
Emerging  from  the  building  after  midnight,  he 
lights  a  cigar,  and  strolls  back  in  the  direction  of 
the  Arno  quarter.  He  threads  the  intervening 
streets,  and  traverses  the  wide  space  of  the  Piazza 
Signoria  to  revisit  the  scene  of  his  morning  walk 
under  a  new  aspect. 

The   night   is  warm   and   tranquil,   with   a  full 


IN   GREAT  COMPANY.  7 

moon  shining  on  Florence.  The  tones  of  light  and 
shadow  are  pure  and  austere  rather  than  soft  and 
bewitching.  Florence  is  not  a  town  of  sinister  aspect 
at  night,  and  the  pavement  echoes  to  the  footfall 
of  the  leisurely  pedestrian,  undisturbed  by  drunken 
brawls.  The  Palazzo  Vecchio  rises  in  sombre  ma 
jesty  of  outline  on  the  starlit  sky,  the  volume  in 
stone  of  the  history  of  the  commonwealth.  Long 
ago  did  the  teeming  brain  of  that  mighty  architect 
Arnolfo  di  Cambio  project  the  structure,  leaving  the 
task  to  other  labourers  to  execute  his  plans  "  in  good 
and  durable  material,"  crowned  by  the  tower  of  his 
dreams,  and  given  voice  to  speak  in  full,  cadenced 
utterance  to  the  heart  of  the  people  in  the  strokes 
of  the  bell  of  the  Lion,  which  rang  the  Ave  Maria 
of  morning  and  evening,  the  bell  of  the  populace 
summoning  to  council,  and  the  bell  of  the  Podesta 
calling  together  a  meeting  of  the  commune,  —  all 
uniting  in  a  chorus  of  pealing  acclamation  when 
the  priors  and  gonfaloniere  entered  on  the  function 
of  office.  In  the  shadow  of  midnight  the  book  in 
stone  holds  closely  its  treasures  of  bronzes,  statues, 
carvings,  frescos,  and  even  the  Armadii,  or  cabinets, 
once  overflowing  with  the  riches  of  the  Medici 
rulers,  furnish  an  illuminated  margin  bestowed  by 
Art  on  the  written  scroll  of  human  wisdom,  courage, 
madness,  and  folly,  as  the  exterior  scutcheons  of 
princes,  tyrants,  and  guilds  beneath  the  parapet 
may  be  accepted  as  embellishing  the  cover.  The  old 
lion,  the  Marzocco,  holding  the  shield  of  the  city  in 


8  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

one  paw,  guards  the  mediaeval  clasp  of  portal  of  the 
precious  volume,  and  gazes  down  from  his  pedestal 
at  this  hour,  with  an  impassible,  stony  countenance 
in  no  wise  feline.  He  seems  to  say  to  the  traveller, 
"  Serious  man  of  to-day,  keep  your  polchinelli  toys 
and  tin  soldiers,  and  do  not  despise  the  toys  of 
children  of  other  times,  who  did  not  scorn  your 
own,  perhaps,  because  they  did  not  know  them." 

There  is  a  certain  element  of  grim  humour  further 
suggested  by  the  lion  guardian  of  the  Palazzo  Vec- 
chio.  In  1331  the  Florentine  Eepublic  conquered 
the  town  of  Barga  in  the  Garfagnana  district  of  the 
Apennines.  The  people  of  Barga  rebelled  in  1528, 
and  showed  their  defiance  by  ringing  the  church 
bells,  sounding  their  trumpets,  and,  with  much 
pomp  of  ceremonial  of  a  derisive  character,  dug  a 
hole  in  the  Piazza,  and  buried  a  statue  of  the 
Marzocco,  as  the  lion  insignia  of  Florence. 

The  moonbeams  shimmer  on  the  bronze  eques 
trian  statue  of  the  merchant  prince,  Cosimo  I., 
convert  the  figures  of  the  adjacent  fountain  into  a 
snowy  shaft,  and  shed  oblique  rays  into  the  depths 
of  the  Loggia  de'  Lanzi.  The  moonlight  is  whitest 
on  the  open  space  of  square  where  Savonarola  was 
burned. 

In  the  portico  of  the  Uffizi  beyond,  the  statues 
stand  in  their  respective  niches,  but  the  plants  and 
flowers  of  the  day  have  all  been  swept  away. 
Thrilled  to  transient  animation  by  the  spell  of  the 
moon,  do  the  marble  lips  of  the  great  company 


• 


Execution  of  Savonarola. 


IN    GREAT   COMPANY.  9 

again  whisper  the  secrets  of  their  earthly  aspira 
tions  in  the  flesh  ?  When  the  moon  draws  a  veil 
of  passing  cloud  over  her  radiant  disk,  and  sudden 
gloom  falls  on  arch  and  column,  do  statesmen  and 
artists  descend  from  their  alcoves  to  rehearse  on 
this  narrow  stage  of  pavement  their  individual 
drama  of  existence,  in  all  the  passion  and  vitality 
of  purpose  that  once  impelled  heart  and  brain  ? 
More  fantastic  than  the  fretwork  of  silver,  wrought 
by  the  lustre  of  the  Queen  of  Night  on  step  and 
coping,  does  the  spirit  of  Paganini  flit  to  hold  com 
munion  with  worthy  old  Guido  Aretino  about  the 
notation  and  composition  of  early  music,  on  a  spot 
where  the  eccentric  violinist  once  snatched  a  guitar 
from  the  grasp  of  a  party  of  young  men,  and  wrung 
from  the  instrument  those  melodies  which  were  a 
reminiscence  of  his  own  youth  ?  Does  Benvenuto 
Cellini  pause  in  rapt  contemplation  of  his  own  group 
of  the  Perseus,  so  long  after  the  day  when,  stricken 
with  fever,  he  quaffed  the  beaker  of  cooled  water, 
and  leaped  from  his  bed  to  kindle  the  spent  furnace, 
in  which  the  bronze  was  being  fused  ?  Do  Leonardo 
da  Vinci,  Niccolo  Pisani,  and  Leon  Battista  Alberti 
converse  together  calmly  on  certain  problems  of 
architecture  ?  Does  Michelangelo  argue  vehemently 
on  questions  of  form  and  colouring  with  stanch 
Giotto,  and  Cimabue  ?  In  mild  radiance  of  the  spir 
itual  beauty  of  benevolence  in  old  age  Sant'  Antonino 
ponders  apart  on  the  means  whereby  he  may  further 
relieve  pain  and  poverty  in  his  flock,  the  inhabi- 


10  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

tants  of  the  town.  A  wonderful  gathering  this,  in 
the  silence  of  night,  touched  by  the  wand  of  fancy, 
or  a  stray  moonbeam,  and  such  as  the  world  cannot 
offer  to  contemplation  elsewhere. 

Greatest  of  all  the  group  to  our  Young  American 
stands  Amerigo  Vespucci,  turning  from  the  mighty 
Past,  and  the  manifold  awakening  of  the  Eenais- 
sance  period,  in  which  the  career  of  most  of  his 
companions  was  involved,  to  the  Future.  He  gazes 
beyond  the  Palazzo  Vecchio,  the  sleeping  town,  and 
even  the  limits  of  his  native  Italy,  toward  the  vast 
realms  of  the  western  ocean.  As  the  moon  grows 
pale,  merging  into  dawn,  another  band  of  phantoms 
seems  to  hover  near  to  greet  him,  alone :  Magellan, 
Cabot,  Cook,  Behring,  Davis,  Frobisher,  Drake,  Ker- 
guelen,  Schouten  Van  Horn,  or  Dumont  d'Urville. 
Only  in  the  stillness  of  the  balmy  night  do  the 
navigators  and  discoverers  forget  national  jealousies 
and  emulation,  —  weather-beaten  and  careworn  of 
aspect  after  the  countless  perils  and  vicissitudes 
experienced  in  fulfilling  their  painful,  if  glorious 
mission  on  earth,  questioning  each  other  and 
Amerigo  Vespucci  on  his  pedestal  with  glances  of 
mutual  sympathy,  and  joining  hands  as  a  great 
brotherhood,  working  together  in  the  harmony  of 
other  spheres.  Only  while  the  moonlight  lasts  on 
the  statues  of  the  niches  of  the  Uffizi  portico  do 
they  attain  the  Biblical  unity  of  purpose,  when  "  the 
carpenter  encouraged  the  goldsmith,  and  he  that 
smote  with  the  anvil  him  that  smoothed  with  the 


IN   GREAT   COMPANY.  11 

hammer."  These  phantoms  bring  a  fresh,  invigo 
rating  breath  of  the  sea  to  the  tranquil,  inland 
city  in  their  very  presence,  while  the  Polar  ice  clings 
to  their  beards,  and  their  garments  exhale  the  fra 
grance  of  the  Tropics. 

In  the  space  of  a  few  paces  the  loiterer  of  noon 
day,  or  midnight,  may  here  lose  himself  in  hours, 
nay,  in  years  of  study,  if  he  will. 


CHAPTER  II. 

ON   THE   LUNG*   ARNO   AMERIGO   VESPUCCI. 

THE  American  traveller  takes  a  cup  of  coffee  near 
a  window  overlooking  the  tawny  tide  of  Arno,  then 
strolls  along  a  corridor  of  the  Hotel  Washington 
to  pause  at  another  casement  which  opens  on  the 
street  in  the  rear  of  the  building. 

The  Via  Borgognissanti  is  not  an  attractive  thor 
oughfare,  and  the  twin  rows  of  houses,  with  shops 
displaying  their  stock  of  mosaic-work,  marble  statu 
ettes  from  Carrara,  and  glaringly  fresh  copies  of 
celebrated  pictures,  Madonnas,  Sibyls,  and  Angels, 
are  the  reverse  of  impressive.  The  tourist  of  diverse 
nationalities  emerges  from  adjacent  hotels,  en  route 
for  the  Bargello,  the  Cathedral,  and  the  cloister  of 
San  Marco,  red  guide-book  in  hand,  and  fingers  to 
inspect  local  wares.  One  may  jostle  here  a  Siamese 
prince,  a  slender,  olive-hued  youth,  clad  in  a  robe  of 
soft  silk  ;  a  Grand-Duke  of  northern  Europe,  digni 
fied  and  impassible,  with  blond  beard  and  hair ;  the 
Dutch  planter  returning  to  Java  with  a  parchment 
complexion  of  the  colour  of  his  own  coffee ;  or  a 
diminutive  Indian  ayah,  with  gold  earrings,  and 
a  yellow  shawl  knotted  across  her  shoulders,  dand- 


di  San  Marco. 


ON   THE   LUNG'   ARNO.  13 

ling  a  pale,  blue-eyed  baby,  as  well  as  the  most 
prosaic  type  of  Anglo-Saxon.  A  smell  of  drugs 
pervades  the  street,  the  mud  of  winter  clings  to  the 
pavement,  and  the  sultry  glow  of  summer  suri 
smites  unpityingly  on  the  pedestrian.  The  thorough 
fare  received  its  name  from  the  church  of  the 
Ognissanti  near  by,  which  was  built  by  the  Frate 
Umiliati.  This  company  of  monks  brought  to 
Florence  the  craft  of  working  in  wool.  They  dwelt 
and  worked  until  the  year  1206  at  San  Donato  in 
Polverosa,  when  it  was  decided  that  the  locality 
was  too  distant  from  Florence  for  their  industry, 
and  they  were  accorded  Santa  Lucia  sul  Prato  as 
a  new  abode,  a  spot  still  outside  the  limit  of  the 
city  walls.  In  1256  the  convent  of  Ognissanti  was 
built,  in  turn,  and  the  street  became  gradually 
occupied  by  their  dye-houses  and  fulling-mills. 

The  Young  American  glances  out  of  the  case 
ment  of  the  hotel,  and  notices  the  building  on 
the  corner  of  the  street  above  in  the  direction 
of  the  church  of  Ognissanti  and  the  open  space  of 
the  Piazza  Manin.  This  structure  is  the  Hospital 
of  San  Giovanni  di  Dio,  with  a  pharmacy  attached,  — 
a  civic  institution  where  eminent  surgeons  give 
their  services  in  alleviation  of  the  poor,  in  consulta 
tion,  at  stated  hours.  The  property  of  the  Vespucci 
family  has  been  incorporated  in  the  hospital,  and 
here  Amerigo  Vespucci  was  born  in  1453.  An 
inscription  on  the  wall  records :  "  Ob  repertam 
Americam  sui  et  patrice  nominis  illustratori  ampli- 


14  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

ficatori  orbis  terrarum"  The  Florentines  rejoiced 
in  the  renown  of  their  fellow-townsman,  and  the 
Signoria  ordered  the  building  where  he  was  born 
illuminated  for  three  successive  nights,  after  his 
voyage  in  1499.  Simone,  son  of  Pietro  Vespucci, 
is  reputed  to  have  opened  a  hospital  in  the  year 
1400.  The  Confraternity  of  San  Giovanni  di  Dio 
united  this  charitable  foundation  to  their  convent 
and  church  adjacent  in  1587,  and  subsequently 
enlarged  the  premises  in  1785.  After  the  discovery 
of  America  the  Vespucci  were  allowed  to  attach  a 
fanale  to  their  houses,  but  now  the  inscription 
alone  remains. 

A  monk,  wearing  the  brown  robe,  and  a  small 
skull-cap  of  the  Franciscan  orders,  pauses  at  the 
portal  of  the  hospital  to  inhale  the  fresh  air.  He 
is  a  nurse,  with  a  thin,  pale  face,  and  his  opportuni 
ties  of  breathing  the  outer  atmosphere,  snatched  in 
a  moment  of  leisure,  are  confined  to  the  narrow 
limits  of  the  Via  Borgognissanti.  Did  ever  monk 
climb  the  steep  path  of  his  earthly  Calvary  by  a 
more  painful  route  of  drudgery  ?  His  dark  form  in 
the  doorway  affords  the  sole  feature  of  suggestive 
association  between  the  past  and  the  present  per 
ceptible  about  these  precincts.  The  Frate's  minis 
trations  do  not  seem  to  appertain  to  such  modern 
remedies  as  quinine,  vermouth,  and  antipyrene,  but 
rather  to  the  elixirs  and  cordials  of  mediaeval  mon- 
asticism.  Is  he  not  versed  in  the  miraculous  virtues 
of  the  syrup  of  cedar,  camphor,  alkermes,  the  root 


ON  THE   LUNG'   ARNO.  15 

of  the  white  lily,  goat's  rue,  amber,  sweet  and  bitter 
almonds,  treacle,  myrrh  to  hold  in  the  mouth  in  a 
season  of  infection,  and  talismanic  properties  of 
certain  gems,  such  as  the  jacinth  stone?  Might 
he  not  sell  an  infallible  powder  to  a  municipal 
commission  of  health,  as  an  antidote  to  cholera,  for 
the  sum  of  one  hundred  gold  florins,  as  well  as  a 
certain  priest  in  the  time  of  the  great  Plague  ? 
Does  he  deal  with  the  oil  of  St.  John,  probably 
tinctured  with  the  plant  St.  John's  wort,  which  is 
still  distributed  to  the  mothers  of  the  people,  for 
childish  ailments,  if  each  seeks  a  palace  in  the 
Via  della  Forca  furnished  with  a  little  flask  on  the 
Eve  of  the  Baptist's  festa  in  June,  as  one  of  the  most 
ancient  traditions  of  the  city  ?  An  iron  lamp  hangs 
suspended  above  a  little  shrine  on  a  house  opposite 
the  hospital.  This  tabernacle  is  another  relic  of 
past  customs.  Peter  Martyr  spread  the  sentiment 
of  devotion  to  the  Madonna,  and  instituted  the 
custom  of  attaching  her  image,  with  that  of  Christ 
and  various  saints,  to  dwellings,  urging  the  lighting 
of  lamps  during  the  hours  of  darkness,  quite  as 
much  as  a  measure  of  security  against  the  attacks 
of  robbers,  or  assassins,  on  peaceful  citizens  late 
abroad  as  to  inspire  devout  meditation.  Worthy 
preacher,  who  believed  in  demons  of  night,  and 
terrified  imaginations,  as  tempting  the  souls  of  the 
faithful,  what  would  be  your  astonishment  at  the 
pallid  glow  of  electric  globes  now  illuminating  many 
portions  of  Florence ! 


16  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

The  Young  American  watches  a  country  waggon 
as  it  pauses  at  the  hospital.  The  hale  father,  and 
lean,  brown  son  detach  the  horse  from  the  shafts  in 
order  to  assist  the  mother  to  alight,  with  the  aid  of 
crutches.  The  cripple  wears  a  copper-coloured  hand 
kerchief  tied  over  her  head,  and  a  curious  shawl  of 
green  crepe,  —  some  relic  of  her  wedding  day.  She 
glances  back  at  the  old  husband  and  son,  wistfully, 
wruen  about  to  enter  the  domain  of  pain  supported 
by  her  daughter-in-law,  and  the  men  nod  cheerfully. 
A  transient  ripple  of  sympathy  pervades  the  street. 
The  domestic  drudge  hurrying  homeward  with  a 
flask  of  wine  hugged  under  one  arm,  and  a  can  of 
petroleum  in  the  other  hand,  pauses  to  exchange  a 
word  with  the  bootblack  seated  on  his  stool  on  the 
opposite  kerbstone,  while  a  group  of  young  soldiers 
pause  a  moment,  then  stride  on,  possibly  experien 
cing  a  novel  sentiment  of  gratitude  in  the  possession 
of  their  own  vigorous  juvenile  members. 

The  American  resident  calls  on  the  traveller,  and 
together  they  stroll  down  the  Lung'  Arno  Amerigo 
Vespucci.  The  sky  is  obscured  by  clouds,  and  the 
quay  deserted. 

"  Why  should  we  not  believe  in  Amerigo  Ves 
pucci  ? "  queries  the  former. 

"  Let  us  believe  in  him,  by  all  means,"  assents 
the  latter,  with  animation. 

"  Especially  as  to-day,  the  ninth  of  March,  is  the 
date  when  the  Florentine  gentleman  is  supposed  to 
have  been  born,"  the  resident  adds. 


ON   THE   LUNG*   ARNO.  17 

An  old  Capuchin  monk,  with  a  coarse  sack  slung 
over  his  shoulder,  who  has  trudged  into  town  on 
sandalled  feet,  pauses  to  exchange  greetings  with 
the  servants  at  the  door  of  a  modern  palazzo,  with 
closely  shuttered  casements,  denoting  the  absence  of 
the  master.  He  proffers  his  horn  snuff-box  to  the 
porter,  who  gravely  takes  a  pinch  of  the  fragrant 
dust.  A  young,  red-haired  groom  leads  forth  a 
white  horse  from  a  stable  to  pace  the  Arno  bank. 
The  gentle  and  pretty  animal  is  covered  with  a 
blanket  of  pale,  sea-green  tint,  and  moves  with  a 
coquettish,  mincing  gait,  while  the  lad  holds  the 
bridle.  The  white  horse,  short  in  the  barrel  and 
with  rounded  limbs,  resembles  the  steeds  depicted 
by  early  painters,  especially  Benozzo  Gozzoli. 
Given  trappings  embroidered  and  fringed  with  gold, 
and  the  red-haired  groom  attired  in  slashed  doublet 
and  silken  hose,  both  horse  and  attendant  might 
serve  in  a  procession  of  the  Magi  of  some  fading 
fresco  on  a  chapel  wall. 

The  rural  baker  halts  in  his  little  cart  to  deliver 
a  large  round  loaf  at  a  garden  gate.  The  cart  is 
drawn  by  a  sturdy  nag  wearing  blinkers  and  bells, 
and  is  painted  a  bright  blue,  with  the  design  of 
three  blades  of  wheat  crossed  on  the  tail-board. 
Consider,  for  a  moment,  the  antiquity  of  this  sym 
bolical  stalk  of  grain,  ripened  in  Egypt,  Tartary,  and 
Siberia,  brought  to  Marseilles  by  the  Phoenicians, 
and  known  as  the  Uadus  of  the  Latin  race,  ground 
by  the  water-mills  invented  by  Belisarius  or  erected 

2 


18  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

by  Julius  Caesar,  as  stated  by  Pomponius  Sabinus. 
One  associates  wheat,  also,  with  a  wise  and  gracious 
Queen  of  Sicily,  Dio  by  name,  who  taught  her  sub 
jects  to  sow,  reap,  and  crush  the  gathered  harvest  in 
the  year  B.C.  427;  while  hungry  Gaul  awaited  the 
discovery  of  windmills,  as  used  by  the  Saracens,  by 
the  Crusaders  in  1040,  devouring  acorns,  chestnuts, 
and  oaten  porridge  in  rude  haunts  of  the  woods, 
meanwhile.  The  worship  of  Ceres  may  still  find 
root  here  on  the  Lung'  Arno  in  the  soft  spring  morn 
ing,  when  a  faint  tinge  of  green  begins  to  cloud  the 
distant  trees  of  the  Cascine,  and  a  line  of  vivid 
emerald  marks  the  growth  of  winter  crops  beneath 
olive-trees  on  hills  across  the  narrow  span  of  river 
Arno.  What  does  the  baker's  cart,  a  sort  of  bin  on 
wheels,  contain  ?  Merely  the  wholesome  country 
loaf  of  whole  meal,  or  some  lineal  descendant  of  the 
seventy-two  kinds  of  raised  bread  reputed  to  have 
been  brought  from  the  East  by  Megalarte,  whether 
mixed  of  barley,  rye,  and  wheat,  made  with  oil, 
flavoured  with  cheese,  unleavened,  as  the  Azyme  of 
Jewish  captives,  strangely  compounded  of  milk,  fat, 
and  pepper,  or  cunningly  flavoured  with  wine  and 
honey  to  a  semblance  of  modern  gingerbread? 
Eather  may  one  infer  that  the  humble  conveyance 
holds  no  such  tempting  delicacies,  but  only  the  por 
tion  for  the  nourishment  of  man  first  baked  by  Sara 
amidst  the  ashes  of  the  hearth  for  the  angelic  visi 
tors  to  her  tent,  possibly  before  the  Hebrew  race 
adopted  the  small  portable  oven  attributed  to  them. 


ON   THE   LUNG*   AKNO.  19 

British  philanthropists  deplore  the  inevitable  im 
poverishment  of  the  labouring  classes  in  discarding 
barley  and  oatmeal  porridge  in  favour  of  dry  white 
flour,  and  the  Florentine  lower  orders  consume  the 
chaff  of  the  town  baker  in  preference  to  the  more 
solid  and  nutritious  rural  aliment,  yet  there  is  a 
certain  phase  of  patriarchal  custom  still  to  be  asso 
ciated  with  the  little  cart  driving  in  the  gate  of  the 
Flower  City,  and  the  names  of  such  localities  as  the 
Canto  alle  Farine,  near  the  Palazzo  Vecchio,  or 
the  duty  of  the  very  ancient  Magistracy  of  Abun 
dance  that  the  eight  captains  who  had  been  elected 
to  buy  foreign  grain  for  the  town  should  climb  the 
tower  of  the  Church  of  Or.  San  Michele  once  a  year 
to  survey  the  surrounding  country,  and  make  an 
estimate  of  the  prospects  of  the  harvest. 

"Look  at  the  rainbow!"  exclaims  the  country 
baker,  a  jovial,  brown  man  emerging  from  the 
garden  gate,  and  followed  by  the  gardener's  wife, 
with  a  brood  of  chubby  children  already  munching 
slices  of  fresh  bread.  "  Eh !  That  was  made  by  a 
good  architect !  We  shall  have  a  fruitful  year  with 
all  that  yellow  for  the  oil,  red  for  the  wine,  and 
green  for  the  corn." 

The  two  Americans  walk  along  the  quay,  with 
umbrellas  closed,  the  traveller,  with  whom  all 
impressions  are  fresh,  observing  his  companion  with 
some  curiosity.  The  older  man,  gray-bearded,  reti 
cent  in  manner,  and  quiet,  defines  himself  as  a  waif, 
an  exile  from  America,  where  an  occasional  visit  takes 


20  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

his  breath  away  in  all  the  rush  of  active  life,  tele 
phonic  systems,  and  electric  tramways  which  signify 
progress.  He  resembles  the  artist  in  Eome  who  led 
new-comers  to  a  certain  spot  on  the  Aventine,  and 
silently  absorbed  the  beauties  of  the  scene  outspread 
for  his  rapt  contemplation,  awed  to  incapacity, 
while  the  students  dashed  off  hasty  sketches  of  a 
crude,  first  impression,  each  in  his  own  fashion.  On 
the  changing  lights  and  phases  of  his  Florence  the 
American  resident  is  usually  mute.  He  lingers  in 
the  shadow  of  a  church  portal,  or  in  the  house 
of  Michelangelo  to  contemplate  the  desk  of  the 
great  man.  He  basks  in  the  sunshine  of  a  winter 
afternoon  on  a  hillside  of  the  environs,  making  a 
drawing,  furtively  and  secretly,  in  a  pocket  album 
all  abloom  with  purple,  russet,  and  gold,  with  a 
background  of  snow  peaks,  intoxicated  by  a  cry 
stalline  purity  of  atmosphere,  and  a  riot  of  colour 
earthward,  Italy  smiling  on  him  in  the  radiance  of 
the  day,  and  the  stillness  broken  by  the  occasional 
note  of  a  church  bell.  He  haunts  auction  sales, 
on  occasion  finding  in  the  wreck  of  a  foreigner's 
household  gods,  whether  Dutch,  Eussian,  or  British, 
none  of  the  resources,  indeed,  of  Christie's,  and  the 
Hotel  Drouot,  but  a  pathos  in  chairs,  tables,  worn 
embroideries,  and  punch-bowls,  of  which  dust  is  sole 
record,  such  as  keeps  him  in  touch  with  his  kind. 
He  dwells  on  the  Lung'  Arno  Amerigo  Vespucci, 
in  one  of  the  apartments  with  a  gallery  enclosed 
with  glass,  surrounded  by  furniture,  pictures,  books, 


ON   THE   LUNG'  ARNO.  21 

and  objects  of  art,  chiefly  of  the  date  of  the  fif 
teenth  century. 

"  You  have  lived  in  Florence  for  a  long  time,"  the 
Young  American  observes. 

"  Yes ;  I  drifted  here  ages  ago,"  the  exile  answers. 
"  You  have  often  heard  of  the  typical  Englishman 
who  seeks  some  obscure  Continental  town  for  a 
week  and  remained  twenty  years,  no  doubt.  Well ! 
Americus  Vespucius  was  kind  enough  to  give  his 
name  to  my  country,  and,  in  turn,  I  have  discovered 
his  birthplace.  Is  not  that  like  looking  through  the 
reverse  end  of  a  telescope  ?  I  came  to  Florence  as 
a  tourist,  then  returned  to  spend  a  winter  and  springj 
and  ultimately  took  up  my  abode  here." 

The  Young  American  glances  up  and  down  the 
Lung'  Arno,  the  capuchin,  who  is  the  type  of  Boc 
caccio's  merry,  gossiping  frate  of  the  countryside, 
has  trudged  on  with  his  sack  over  his  shoulder,  the 
rural  baker  has  driven  off,  and  the  white  horse,  after 
Benozzo  Gozzoli,  been  led  back  to  the  stable. 

"  It  seems  a  very  quiet  place,"  muses  the  stranger. 

"  At  such  moments  as  this  one  gets  back  a  little 
of  the  old  feeling,  and  the  atmosphere  of  other 
times,  just  as  the  lover  of  Eome  comes  down  of  a 
summer  afternoon  from  some  cool  retreat  in  the 
Castelli  to  ramble  about  the  deserted  streets,  un- 
jostled  by  modern,  fashionable  life,"  the  old  Ameri 
can  makes  response. 

They  pause,  and  the  Young  American  traces  the 
course  of  the  Arno  westward,  with  his  furled 
umbrella. 


22  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

"  When  Amerigo  Vespucci  quitted  his  native  city 
did  he  take  boat,  and  seek  the  Mediterranean  Sea 
by  way  of  Pisa  ? "  he  ponders. 

"Who  knows?"  echoes  his  companion.  "What 
are  we  to  think  of  Amerigo  Vespucci  in  our  time  ? 
Was  he  a  vain  upstart  of  a  Florentine,  who  strove 
to  rob  the  great  Columbus  of  his  laurels  of  glory  ? 
Would  not  you  or  I  have  boasted  a  little,  had  we 
made  four  voyages  to  America  across  nearly  untried 
seas,  in  the  craft  of  his  day  instead  of  on  board  of 
the  ocean  greyhound  ?  Was  he  ignorant  of  the  fame 
in  store  for  him,  that  bauble  extended  by  posterity 
all  too  late  to  so  many  of  the  sons  of  earth  ?  Who 
may  decide  ? " 

"  Ours  is  an  age  of  doubt  in  most  things,"  sug 
gests  the  Young  American. 

"A  period  of  doubt  because  everything  is  reputed 
to  have  been  done,  and  we  have  the  leisure,  there 
fore,  to  meditate  on  a  matter  of  interest,  each  in  our 
own  fashion,  and  discuss  it  at  greater  or  less  length. 
The  Marchese  Girolamo  Serra,  the  Genoese,  states 
that  our  age  inclines  to  philosophical  history,  in 
which  an  author  may  recount,  sift,  and  reflect,  but 
attempts  to  change  nothing,  like  an  expert  captain 
who  remains  imperturbable  in  the  midst  of  battle. 
Now  if  we  could  all  weigh  Amerigo  Vespucci's 
claims  to  consideration  in  such  a  spirit !"  rejoins  the 
old  American. 

Youth  makes  a  gesture  of  impatience. 

"  One  does  not  know  what  to  believe,  nowa 
days  ! "  he  exclaims,  suddenly,  with  a  clouded  brow. 


ON  THE   LUNG'   ARNO.  23 

"  Courage ! "  says  his  companion,  reassuringly. 
"It  is  a  fact  that  — 

1  Wisest  is  he  who,  never  quite  secure, 

Changes  his  thoughts  for  better  day  by  day ; 
To-morrow  some  new  light  will  shine,  be  sure, 
And  thou  shalt  see  thy  thought  another  way.'  " 

But  the  Young  American  persists  in  being  ag 
grieved  at  the  tendency  of  certain  wise  heads  to 
check  all  enthusiasm  in  a  most  pessimistic  vein. 

"We  are  not  even  allowed  to  consider  William 
Tell  as  a  historical  character,"  he  grumbles.  "We 
are  told  that  the  apple  business  has  been  forever 
discarded  by  the  cantonal  government  of  Schwyz, 
and  the  hero  excluded  from  school  histories  pub 
lished  on  authority.  Somebody  else  hastens  to  bowl 
down  the  very  suggestion  that  Tasman  christened 
Van  Diemen's  land  in  honor  of  Miss  Marie  Van 
Diemen  at  home  in  Batavia.  What  good  is  it  for 
the  iconoclasts  to  sweep  away  everything  ?  I  read 
the  guide-book  item  that  Galileo's  telescope  is  kept 
in  the  Museum  of  Natural  Science  here,  to  a  girl 
with  an  eye-glass  on  the  train  from  Bologna,  and 
she  said  she  did  not  believe  it." 

"  Why  did  she  discredit  the  fact  ? "  demanded  the 
senior,  after  a  pause. 

"Oh,  she  affirmed  that  they  say  those  things  in 
every  place ! " 

"  Meaning  that  there  is  a  Galileo  and  a  telescope 
in  each  town,"  supplements  the  old  American. 
"  Logical  reasoning  !  Well,  no  law  forbids  every 


24  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER, 

Miss  making  an  idiot  of  herself  in  travel,  if  she 
chooses.  Ah,  I  rejoice  that  I  was  once  young,  full 
of  ardent  curiosity  to  pound  my  toy  watches  with 
any  stray  hammer,  and  spy  at  the  mechanism,  run 
ning  full  tilt  at  all  windmills  of  chimera,  a  wor 
shipper  of  heroes,  warriors,  and  poets,  with  juvenile 
warmth  of  imaginative  reverence,  and  falling  into 
many  a  ditch  of  cruel  disillusionment,  yet  learning, 
always  learning  for  myself." 

"The  hlack  beetle  is  even  now  worried  in  the 
cause  of  science,  and  declared  not  to  be  a  beetle  at 
all,"  protests  the  young  American. 

"  From  William  Tell  to  black  beetles  !  —  where 
shall  we  stray  next  ?  "  and  the  senior  laughs.  "  Also, 
the  blind  worm  has  been  pronounced  not  blind,  and 
one  of  the  most  useful  of  God's  creatures." 

"  Of  course ! " 

"  On  the  other  hand,  restitution  is  being  made," 
muses  the  old  American.  "Nero  is  said  to  have 
cherished  enlightened  schemes  for  the  re-building  of 
Rome  with  broader  streets,  after  consulting  archi 
tects,  providing  tents  for  the  houseless  people,  and  a 
store  of  corn  at  Ostia,  rather  than  to  have  merely 
applied  the  torch  of  a  madman  to  the  Imperial  City. 
Intimidated  by  the  result,  he  attributed  the  crime 
to  the  new  sect  of  Christians.  Lucretia  Borgia  is 
found  on  later  evidence  to  have  been  a  worthy 
matron  enough.  Even  Queen  Joanna  of  Spain  has 
had  the  veil  of  mystery  lifted  a  little,  with  the  query 
if  she  was  actually  mad,  or  a  dangerous  prisoner  of 


ON   THE   LUNG'   ARNO.  25 

state  with  leanings  to  new  doctrines  of  Protestantism' 
in  the  infernal  machinations  of  Spanish  politics. 
We,  the  doubters,  listen,  and  wonder,  moved  to 
leniency  of  judgment  by  a  lock  of  Beauty's  golden 
hair  treasured  in  a  museum,  or  thrilled  to  sympathy 
by  the  picture  in  the  Spanish  collection  of  the  Paris 
Exposition  of  1878  of  daft  Joanna  escorting  the 
corpse  of  her  husband  amidst  flaring  wax  torches. 
Was  Nero  altogether  a  brute  ?  Was  Queen  Joanna 
insane  ?  How  complacently  wise  and  sound  histo 
rians  portray  prominent  personages :  this  one  as  akin 
to  the  demigods,  who  proves  to  have  been  a  clever 
actor  wearing  a  mask  before  his  audience,  and  that 
one  a  cowardly  miscreant,  in  failure,  shown  by  later 
research  in  the  guise  of  a  true  and  pure  patriot, 
maligned  by  the  hatred  of  contemporaries !  Let  us 
not  scoff  at  the  seekers  of  truth,  my  friend.  Those 
who  toil  in  the  vast  field  of  the  rectifications  of  his 
tory  resemble  Old  Mortality  tenderly  removing  the 
moss  from  the  epitaph  of  tombs.  If  Tertullian 
affirmed,  in  his  time,  that  the  world  became  each 
day  more  embellished  and  magnificent,  with  the 
most  remote  nooks  rendered  accessible  and  fre 
quented,  deserts  once  dreaded  covered  with  fresh 
herbage,  the  forests  conquered  by  agriculture,  wild 
animals  driven  to  distant  lairs  before  domestic  herds, 
the  sandy  wastes  sown  with  seed,  the  rocks  crushed, 
and  the  quagmire  converted  into  firm  ground,  how 
much  more  readily  can  we  make  a  similar  boast." 
"  There 's  always  some  one  ready  to  take  a  fellow 


26  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

down  a  peg  if  he  gushes  over  the  least  little  thing  ! " 
exclaims  the  Young  American,  with  petulance. 

"Adhere  to  your  own  standard,"  the  senior  ad 
monishes  good-humoredly.  "  Dare  to  be  true  to  your 
accepted  creed.  Now  concerning  Amerigo  Vespucci, 
his  identity  has  always  vastly  interested  me,  if 
only  for  the  place  he  filled  in  history.  The  direct 
line  of  his  family  became  extinct  with  the  descend 
ants  of  his  brother,  Giovanni  di  Antonio,  in  1712, 
but  other  bearers  of  the  illustrious  name  are  said 
to  still  dwell  here  in  Florence.  Is  it  not  a  most 
curious  circumstance  that  a  man  born  in  an  in 
land  town,  and  not  ti  son  of  the  sea,  by  nature  or 
profession,  should  have  given  his  name  to  a  new 
continent  ? " 

"  Yes,"  assents  Youth  meditatively. 

The  rainbow  has  dissolved,  and  vanished  over 
the  country  in  the  direction  of  Monte  Morello,  and 
the  sun,  piercing  the  clouds,  tinges  the  Arno,  the 
bridges,  and  the  roofs  with  a  gleam  of  pale  gold. 

The  two  Americans  enter  the  house  with  the  glass- 
enclosed  gallery,  for  luncheon.  The  whims  of  the 
host  are  speedily  revealed  by  the  decoration  of  his 
abode.  Helmets,  greaves,  cuirasses,  armlets,  and 
scutcheons  are  grouped  on  the  walls  of  the  vestibule 
and  corridor  as  the  heirlooms  of  medievalism.  Sev 
eral  chambers  are  crowded  with  the  implements  of 
savages,  Maori  clubs,  Indian  tomahawks,  African 
spears,  agricultural  tools,  idols  from  the  South  Seas, 
an  Ashantee  casket  of  cowrie-shells,  dedicated  to 


ON   THE   LUNG*   ARNO.  27 

Ori,  the  god  of  good  luck,  a  necklace  of  whale's- 
teeth,  and  a  miniature  canoe  swung  on  cords  above 
a  door.  He  smilingly  invites  his  visitor  to  enter  a 
cabinet  which  he  seems  to  have  dedicated  to  the 
memory  of  Vespucci.  A  bust  in  plaster  of  Amer 
ica's  godfather  placed  on  a  bracket  between  two 
windows  is  his  own  work.  As  a  dilettante,  he 
wrought  the  clay  in  the  studio  of  a  friend,  an  emi 
nent  American  sculptor,  during  one  winter,  with 
much  animated  discussion  on  such  debatable  mat 
ters  as  the  probable  shape  of  Vespucci's  nose,  the 
family  cast  of  feature,  and  the  accuracy  of  the  por 
trait  at  Naples,  painted  by  Parmigianino.  Several 
pictures  on  the  wall  are  from  his  hand,  as  well : 
water-colour  sketches  of  the  Brazilian  forest-depths 
in  the  heat  of  noon,  when  birds  and  animals  re 
tire  beneath  the  canopy  of  leaves ;  the  rosy  glow 
of  sunrise,  and  an  Indian  poised  in  his  canoe  on  a 
misty  river  shooting  fish  with  his  bow  and  arrow ; 
or  a  drawing  in  black  and  white  of  moonlight  on  a 
tropical  swamp,  with  an  alligator  in  the  foreground. 
Collections  of  butterflies  and  humming-birds  fill 
the  angles  of  cornice,  while  a  glass  case  in  an  al 
cove  contains  wax  models  of  a  pineapple,  a  potato,  a 
tomato,  a  ripened  ear  of  maize,  some  leaves  of  to 
bacco,  and  specimens  of  the  bark  of  the  chincona 
tree,  vanilla-pods,  and  cacoa-beans.  "  America's  gifts 
to  Europe,"  he  remarked.  "  Let  us  add,  introduced 
by  Amerigo  Vespucci,  since  he  was  one  of  the  instru 
ments.  Ah,  we  do  not  pause  in  this  busy  world  to 
note  the  significance  of  such  trifles  I" 


28  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

The  noonday  meal  over,  the  host  proffers  boxes 
of  cigars  and  cigarettes  to  his  guest,  and  lights  his 
own  pipe.  He  is  an  inveterate  smoker,  and  the 
atmosphere  of  the  apartment  is  usually  opaque.  He 
leads  the  way  to  a  tiny  hot-house,  built  against  a 
projecting  wall  at  his  own  expense,  where  orchids 
bloom  such  as  the  Greeks  and  Komans  might  have 
revelled  in,  yet  never  enjoyed.  He  fosters,  with  a 
delicate  sympathy  in  all  the  eccentricities  of  plant 
life,  the  Flor  de  Majo  (Laelia  majalis),  the  crimson 
Masdevallias,  the  West-Indian  Bletia  verecunda,  or 
the  C.  album  of  the  United  States. 

"My  loyalty  in  expatriation  should  not  be 
doubted,"  he  says  as  he  adjusts  a  glass  slide  here 
and  there,  with  reference  to  the  temperature  best 
adapted  to  these  capricious  children  of  the  New 
World. 

Later  the  resident  leaves  a  copy  of  Wagner's 
Jeunesse  at  the  hotel  for  the  traveller,  with  his 
card  inserted  at  the  charming  dedication:  — 

A 

LA   JEUNESSE 

ET 

A    TOUS   CEUX    QUI   I/AIMENT 
POUR   ELLE-MEME. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   TAPESTRY   OF   THE   FIFTEENTH   CENTURY. 

How  are  we  to  consider  Amerigo  Vespucci  ?  As 
a  pastel,  an  etching,  a  fresco  in  such  company  as 
the  Florentines  of  Ghirlandajo  in  the  church  of 
Santa  Maria  Novella,  or  as  a  portrait  of  the  Venetian 
school  rich  in  vitality  of  colouring  ?  Ah,  if  by  some 
subtle  process  of  the  silversmith's  craft,  followed  on 
the  Ponte  Vecchio  and  in  dark  nooks  of  his  native 
city,  we  could  hope  to  fuse  the  seething  metal  of 
historical  material  in  the  crucible,  and  refine  it 
until  the  features  of  the  Florentine  gentleman  were 
clearly  reflected !  Ah,  if  we  could  hope  to  hold  up 
a  transparent  crystal  as  the  medium  which  permits 
an  image  to  pass  through,  like  the  Arabs  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  who  adopted  the  arrangement  of  the 
Peripatetic  philosophy,  that  a  single  thesis  should 
become  the  nucleus  of  a  vast  system,  the  duty  of 
mind  being  to  perceive  forms  while  remaining  free 
of  all  trammels  !  Amerigo  Vespucci,  as  a  memory, 
resembles  more  those  old  coins  described  by  Sturtz 
as  stamped  with  the  effigy  of  monarchs  we  know 
not,  and  yet  whose  courts  were  brilliant,  and  fre 
quented  by  poets  and  authors  esteemed,  renowned. 


30  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

Still  more  does  he  seem  to  appertain  to  the  tapestry 
pattern  of  his  time.  Far  from  the  Vespucci  quarter 
of  the  Ognissanti,  beyond  the  Duomo,  and  the 
Piazza  of  the  Annunziata,  the  Egyptian  Museum 
gives  access  to  the  Gallery  of  Tapestries  on  the 
Via  Colonna. 

Here  is  a  high-warp  tapestry  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  interwoven  with  gold  thread,  representing 
nobles,  soldiers,  ladies,  persons  of  distinction,  and 
simple  folk,  with  several  pheasants  in  the  fore 
ground,  and  a  canopy  upheld  by  falcons.  The  piece 
might  have  been  wrought  by  any  one  of  the  emigrant 
workers  of  Arras,  Lille,  and  Bruges,  who  trooped 
over  the  Alps  south  between  the  years  1420  and 
1500.  These  sought  employment  in  Tuscany,  Man 
tua,  Venice,  and  Urbino,  their  luggage  consisting  of 
the  sections  of  a  very  primitive  loom,  and  a  few 
cartoon  designs,  while  Italy  assured  an  abundant 
supply  of  the  raw  stuff  requisite  for  textile  fabrics. 
In  the  Tapestry  Gallery  several  easels  support  the 
canvas  of  the  English  and  American  ladies,  who 
copy  favourite  subjects  with  the  colours  of  South 
Kensington,  in  arabesque  scroll,  Medici  scutcheon, 
nymphs,  and  goddesses.  We  have  little  leisure,  in 
our  day,  for  the  patient  task  of  drawing  the  fibre  of 
wool,  silk,  and  burnished  threads  through  the  sub 
stance,  on  the  wrong  side  of  the  design,  if  the  same 
effect  can  only  be  attained  in  form  and  hue  by 
a  surface  of  paint  and  photographic  process  of  re 
production.  The  eye  instinctively  reverts  to  the 


Campanile  of  Giotto,  and  the  Duomo. 


TAPESTRY   OF  THE   FIFTEENTH   CENTURY.          31 

tapestry  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and  seeks  Amer 
igo  Vespucci  in  that  noble  company  gathered  be 
neath  the  sumptuous  canopy  held  in  the  beaks  of 
the  falcons,  which  may  be  accepted  as  symbolical  of 
the  manifold  embellishment  of  human  life  wrought 
by  the  Renaissance.  Prosaically  weighed,  the  strip 
of  stuff  suspended  on  the  wall  is  merely  the  result 
of  the  patient  industry  of  a  foreign  craftsman  hun 
dreds  of  years  ago;  considered  in  a  metaphorical 
vein  it  becomes  the  pattern  of  weal  and  woe  inter 
woven  in  the  loom  of  the  years,  in  some  dim  realm 
of  cloudland,  by  the  inexorable  Fates  of  an  artist's 
reveries. 

All  those  nobles,  soldiers,  ladies,  persons  of  dis 
tinction,  and  simple  folk  of  the  tapestry,  possess  the 
human  interest  of  portraiture,  in  their  century,  had 
we  the  curiosity  of  a  Herodotus  combined  with  the 
vigour  of  a  Tacitus  in  separating  and  describing  each ; 
but  the  lapse  of  succeeding  years  has  blended  them 
into  the  outlines  of  a  pattern,  one  trending  closely 
on  the  footsteps  of  another,  impelled  by  circum 
stance  and  not  seeing  their  own  path  clearly,  yet 
forced  to  advance.  These  also  pass  across  the 
drapery  in  the  sinuous  winding  of  the  course  of  a 
stream :  motive  and  character,  cause  and  effect  lead 
ing  to  conflict  or  a  new  order  of  things,  the  glance 
of  the  poet  or  the  painter  taking  in  the  scenic 
grandeur  of  effect  of  totality,  and  the  scientific 
annalist  noting  carefully  the  volume  of  water,  the 
speed  of  the  current,  and  the  quality  of  all  sediment 
held  in  solution. 


32  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

Among  the  nobles  we  seek  Kichard  III.  of  Eng 
land,  small  of  figure  and  humpbacked,  plotting  the 
overthrow  of  his  nephew  Edward  V.  and  Henry 
of  Richmond  alike ;  the  crafty  countenance  of  Louis 
XI.  furrowed  with  deep  meditation  as  to  the  fulfil 
ment  of  his  mission  of  the  unity  of  France,  and  the 
breaking  up  of  feudal  tyranny,  death  crumbling 
his  scheme  to  dust;  the  weak  and  vacant  face  of 
his  son  Charles  VIII.  in  curious  contrast;  the 
embroidery  of  the  line  of  Medici  princes ;  the  crim 
son  thread  of  the  Borgias  in  the  Duke  Valentino; 
Frederick  III.,  the  Pacific,  of  Germany ;  Sigismund, 
king  of  Hungary,  stained  by  the  blood  of  John 
Huss.  Yonder  is  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  Philippe- 
le-Bon,  giving  his  f£te  at  Lille  in  1453,  after  the 
crusade  against  Mahomet  II.,  the  banquet  table 
adorned  with  confectionery  in  the  shape  of  a  vessel 
riding  on  crystal  waves  of  sugar,  a  church,  and  a 
pastry  containing  puppets  playing  musical  instru 
ments,  while  in  a  theatre  of  the  hall  Mysteries  are 
performed,  then  a  poem  of  the  Golden  Fleece,  and, 
later,  a  giant  leads  in  an  elephant,  with  a  tower  on 
its  back  serving  as  a  prison  for  a  veiled  captive 
maiden,  personating  Christianity  in  the  grasp  of  the 
Mussulman.  Behold  the  group  of  the  Popes  of  the 
century  :  Benedict  XIII.  at  Avignon  struggling  for 
supremacy  with  Boniface  IX.  at  Rome  ;  Innocent 
VII. ;  Alexander  V.,  speedily  making  a  place  for 
John  XXIII.,  a  shuttlecock  tossed  by  adversity 
between  the  Council  of  Constance  and  two  rivals, 


TAPESTRY    OF   THE   FIFTEENTH   CENTURY.          33 

Benedict  XIII.  and  Gregory  XII. ;  Martin  V. ; 
Eugenius  IV.  of  sumptuous,  if  troubled,  fame,  as 
holding  a  conclave  in  the  Florence  Duomo  with 
John  Palseologus,  with  the  aim  of  effecting  a  union 
of  the  Latin  and  Greek  churches  ;  Calixtus  III. ; 
Pius  II.,  the  accomplished  Sienese  gentleman ; 
Paul  II.,  -who  first  clad  his  cardinals  in  purple  ; 
Sixtus  IV.,  the  unpopular  adversary  of  Lorenzo  the 
Magnificent ;  Innocent  VIII. ;  and  Alexander  VI.,  of 
eternal  infamy.  • 

The  soldiers  have  in  their  ranks  Piccinino,  loyal 
to  the  Visconti  unto  death ;  Carmagnola,  changing 
his  armour  of  the  Condottieri  with  supple  address, 
now  in  the  service  of  Milan,  and  again  in  that  of 
Venice ;  Gian  Giacomo  Trivulzio,  no  less  mercenary 
in  his  allegiance  to  rulers,  whether  King  Ferdinand 
of  Naples,  or  Charles  VIII.  of  France  in  1495  ;  and 
Bartolomeo  Coleoni,  esteemed  the  best  tactician  of 
his  age. 

The  ladies  sweep  across  the  space  beneath  the 
canopy  in  their  robes  of  state :  Queen  Isabella  of 
Spain,  of  suave  and  dignified  presence  ;  the  melan 
choly  Catherine  of  Aragon ;  the  keen  Anne  of 
Bretagne,  spinning  primly  among  her  damsels  while 
scheming  to  undo  her  enemies ;  the  Madonna  of 
Imola,  a  rich  and  imperious  personality ;  or  Cathe 
rine  Cornaro,  enveloped  in  the  folds  of  her  trans 
parent  veil,  and  crowned  with  the  diadem  of  Cyprus, 
all  blooming  with  the  tints  of  Titian's  brush. 

The  notable  persons  of  the  fifteenth  century 
3 


34  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

form  a  wonderful  company,  a  thronging  multitude. 
Erasmus,  Luther,  and  Melancthon  are  recognizable, 
with  the  great  Catholic  preachers  Savonarola  and 
Bernardino  of  Siena.  These  traversed  their  era 
and  the  field  of  life,  desolated  by  oppression,  war, 
and  famine,  like  a  flame,  while  all  the  elements 
composing  rival  States  strove  to  revive  the  fine  arts, 
establish  printing,  and  perfect  engraving  on  wood 
and  copper.  Here  are  the  scholars  endeavouring  to 
solve  the  great  laws  of  the  universe,  and  the  navi 
gators  Columbus,  Bartolomeo,  Diaz,  Vasco  di  Gama, 
or  Sebastian  Cabot,  who  adapted  the  systems  of 
physics  and  mathematics  to  aid  their  own  dis 
coveries.  The  artists  push  aside  the  folds  of  the 
draperies  to  admit  a  flood  of  dazzling  light,  in  the 
broad  effulgence  of  new  power :  Albert  Diirer,  Titian, 
Eaphael,  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  Squarcione,  and  Filippo 
Lippi  in  the  imitation  of  grotesques.  Maso  Fini- 
guerra  holds  a  front  rank  in  this  group,  of  whom 
Baldinucci  says :  — 

"  There  was  only  this  artificer  who  inlaid  any  object 
ill  silver,  by  filling  up  with  niello,  making  a  stamp,  or 
impression  of  earth,  and  holding  the  work  over  liquid 
sulphur.  The  design  was  thus  set,  and  given  a  certain 
tint  with  oil,  then  pressed  gently  by  means  of  a  wooden 
wheel,  on  moist  paper,  so  that  the  impression  of  the 
intaglio  remained  also  on  the  paper  of  the  first  model  in 
the  silver,  and  appeared  as  if  drawn  with  a  pen." 

Beware  of  the  horde  of  simple  folk  underfoot, 
the  serfs  and  vassals  escaping  from  the  yoke  of 


TAPESTRY   OF   THE  FIFTEENTH   CENTURY.          35 

ages  to  make  the  tumults  of  the  Ciompi,  under 
Michele  di  Lando,  the  wool-carder  of  Florence,  La 
Jacquerie  in  France,  Wat  Tyler  in  England,  as  well 
as  the  more  noble  dream  of  founding  republican 
States  of  an  Artevelde  of  Brussels,  or  a  Eienzi  of 
Eome.  The  fifteenth  century  held  these  forces  as 
well  as  preceding  and  ensuing  years. 

And  the  weird  sisters,  the  Fates  of  cloud-land  ? 
Imagination  has  free  scope  to  behold  them  spinning 
and  weaving  their  vast  design  of  embroidery.  On 
the  margin  of  the  year  1400  the  subtle  current  of 
religious  fanaticism  in  the  twenty  thousand  peni 
tents,  men  and  women,  clad  in  sackcloth  and  white 
garments,  traversing  Italy  wailing  misericordia,  and 
on  the  other,  of  the  date  1499,  the  Mussulman 
impulse  to  invade  the  West  by  Zara,  and  the  Vene 
tian  States.  The  temples  had  been  demolished,  and 
the  Hellenic  principles  succeeded  by  superstition, 
and  popular  fetes,  —  for  France  the  Pardons,  for 
the  Low  Countries  the  robust  Kermesse,  for  Naples 
a  taper  burning  before  the  Madonna  instead  of 
Ceres  and  Vesta,  as  the  Virgin  further  replaced 
Venus  in  Sicily  and  Greece,  as  the  star  of  Aphrodite 
that  opens  the  gates  of  Dawn ;  and  portents  in  the 
sky,  of  comets,  multiplied  suns,  and  contending 
armies.  French  chivalry,  after  the  fourteenth  cent 
ury,  had  been  smitten  by  the  English  archers  at 
Cre'cy,  Poitiers,  and  Agincourt,  and  was  further 
scattered  by  the  invention  of  artillery.  England 


36  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

had  ceased  to  speak  the  language  of  the  Conqueror 
with  Chaucer,  while  wars  with  the  Valois  severed 
the  two  nations.  The  Popes  built  up  a  vast  society 
spiritual  and  temporal,  while  Germany  began  .to 
study  her  Bible,  and  animate  the  pulpit.  Amerigo 
Vespucci  had  a  place  in  the  warp  and  woof  of  that 
fabric  of  the  fifteenth  century.  The  words  of 
Mr.  Froude  recur  to  the  mind  in  contemplating  the 
tapestry :  — 

"  If  you  would  understand  a  particular  period  study  the 
original  authorities.  Go  to  the  chronicles  written  by  men 
who  lived  at  the  time,  and  breathed  the  contemporary 
air.  Drink  at  the  fountain.  The  stream  of  tradition  con 
tracts  always  some  alien  matter  from  the  soil  which  it 
flows  through.  Eead,  if  you  can  find  them,  the  letters 
and  writings  of  the  persons  that  you  are  concerned  with. 
Read  what  others  who  knew  them  said  about  them,  and 
do  not  trust  your  own  imagination.  Take  nothing  at 
second  hand.  The  language  itself  breathes  the  atmosphere 
in  which  it  grew.  Do  not  rest  while  any  point  which  you 
can  reach  remains  obscure.  You  will  then  find  that  the 
forms  of  departed  things  rise  up,  and  take  shape  before 
you." 

Has  not  Amerigo  Vespucci  been  held  up  for  the 
world's  unsympathetic  scrutiny  in  all  the  unsightly 
knots  and  details  of  the  wrong  side  of  the  pattern, 
rather  than  as  a  completed  and  even  dignified 
figure  of  the  surface  ?  The  sober,  neutral  tints  of 
the  background  of  the  tapestry  only  serve  to  bring 


TAPESTRY  OF  THE   FIFTEENTH   CENTURY.  37 

out  in  sharper  violence  of  contrasting  colours  the 
shades  of  foreground,  and'  middle  space ;  for,  after 
all,  the  world's  history  has  a  certain  uniformity, 
and  everywhere  the  same  causes  produce  the  same 
result. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

IN    THE    MORNING    OF    LIFE. 

A  BAND  of  small  boys,  escaped  on  a  school  holi 
day,  troop  over  the  greensward  of  the  Cascine  on 
the  spring  noonday.  A  half-column  of  stone  at  the 
entrance  of  a  garden  invites  their  juvenile  attention, 
and  emulative  ability  to  surmount  it.  Did  urchin 
ever  behold  post  or  gate  without  longing  to  clamber 
on  the  top  ?  Two  of  the  nimble  little  Florentines 
essay  the  column,  and  fail  to  scale  it ;  then  a  third 
puts  them  aside,  and  with  an  agile  bound  seats  him 
self  on  the  summit.  He  gazes  down  triumphantly, 
with  dangling  legs  swinging,  and  his  companions 
look  up  at  him  with  unwilling  respect. 

"  Aristide,  I  have  a  certain  method  —  I ! "  —  he 
condescendingly  explains. 

Aristide  blinks,  with  a  flushed  little  face,  and 
chews  a  twig  of  laurel  plucked  from  the  adjacent 
hedge.  Evidently  the  boy  on  the  post  is  destined 
to  dominate  his  fellow-townsmen,  unless  conceit 
undoes  him,  sooner  or  later. 

The  childhood  of  this  group  has  certain  modern, 
commonplace  phases,  yet  is  marked  on  the  calendar 
of  very  ancient  customs  in  the  City  of  Flowers. 


IN   THE   MORNING  OF  LIFE.  39 

Each  of  these  little  Christians  was  presented  —  a 
bundle  of  swaddling-clothes  —  soon  after  birth  at 
the  font  of  the  Baptistery  for  the  priest  to  christen 
him,  as  in  the  day  of  Dante,  who  recalled  the  dark, 
rich  temple,  in  exile,  as  his  beautiful  sheepfold. 
The  dial  of  the  year  still  marks  festivals  dear  to  the 
soul  of  childhood.  On  the  festa  of  St.  Simon,  in 
the  month  of  October  all  partake  of  boiled  chest 
nuts  and  new  wine,  a  ceremony  especially  observed 
by  women  and  children.  The  traditional  long,  slen 
der  glass  trumpet  will  be  blown  by  the  band  in  the 
streets  on  the  Eve  of  Epiphany,  while  country 
cousins  hang  their  stockings  beside  the  wide  chim 
ney  for  the  Bef ana  to  fill  with  gifts ;  the  old  woman 
who  rides  about  on  her  donkey  during  the  night  as 
the  benevolent  Santa-Glaus  visits  the  American  nur 
sery  in  his  sleigh.  The  rustic  does  not  fail  to  place 
a  wisp  of  hay  on  the  hearth  for  the  donkey.  Carni 
val  pranks  still  attach  a  strip  of  white  paper,  cut  in 
the  form  of  a  ladder,  by  means  of  a  pin  to  the  shawl 
of  an  unconscious  matron,  the  sly  perpetrators  of  the 
jest  lurking  in  doorways,  and  around  the  corner  to 
enjoy  the  denouement.  The  custom  is  traced  to  a 
delightful  old  woman  of  the  Middle  Ages,  com 
pounded  of  figs,  raisins,  honey,  and  nuts,  draped  like 
an  effigy,  and  hung  in  the  Loggia  de'  Lanzi,  until 
cut  down  by  a  citizen  on  a  ladder,  when  her  mem 
bers,  scattered  on  the  pavement,  were  scrambled  for 
by  the  expectant  populace,  and  devoured  in  a  truly 
cannibal  fashion.  The  nut-fairs  held  at  one  of  the 


40  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

city  gates  during  the  Sundays  of  Lent  delight  them 
with  the  crowd,  the  music,  the  jugglers,  and  the 
piles  of  thin  wafer  cakes,  brigidini,  flavoured  with 
aniseed,  baked  in  little  portable  ovens,  and  stamped 
with  the  design  of  antique  irons.  The  spectacle  of 
firing  the  Car  of  Ceres  on  Holy  Saturday  by  means 
of  the  mechanical  dove  before  the  Duomo;  the 
search  for  crickets  in  the  meadows  of  the  Cascine  on 
Ascension  Day;  and  the  illuminations  of  the  city 
on  the  June  f£te  of  St.  John  the  Baptist,  —  complete 
the  year.  In  their  day  the  bevy  of  boys  in  the 
Cascine  may  study  law,  become  merchants,  enter 
the  army  or  religion,  or  even  emigrate  to  Buenos 
Ayres  and  Brazil. 

Amerigo  Vespucci  was  born  on  the  ninth  of  March, 
1451.  His  father  was  Ser  Anastasio  Vespucci,  and 
his  mother  Elisabetta  Mini.  His  race  ranked  among 
the  most  ancient  of  the  city,  and  counted  among  its 
members  many  illustrious  men.  The  family  came 
from  Peretola,  a  village  one  mile  distant  from  the 
Prato  gate  of  Florence,  where  the  guide-books  state 
pink  lilies-of-the-valley  grow  in  spring,  —  a  sugges 
tion  that  lends  an  additional  beauty  to  the  robe  of 
the  Flower  City,  and  the  cradle  of  the  Vespucci. 
Luca  di  Messer  Piero  Vespucci,  who  formed  a  mem 
ber  of  the  Council  of  Two  Hundred  after  the  fall  of 
the  republic,  is  mentioned  as  a  descendant  of  Ves 
pucci  di  Dolce  di  Bene,  wine  merchant,  of  the  stock 
of  Peretola.  In  the  thirteenth  century  they  took 
up  their  abode  in  the  town,  and,  as  the  Canon  Ban- 


IN   THE   MORNING   OF  LIFE.  41 

dini  quaintly  narrates,  "  like  so  many  noble  families, 
chose  the  parish  nearest  the  portal  leading  to  their 
country  property.  Thus  the  Vespucci  selected  land 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  gate  formerly  named  of  the 
Carre  (carts),  and  now  of  the  Prato  (meadow),  by 
which  the  road  leads  to  Peretola,  in  the  quarter  of 
Santa  Lucia  di  Ognissanti  in  that  house  at  the  cor 
ner  of  the  new  Yia  di  Borgognissanti,  and  which 
to-day  serves  as  a  hospital  for  poor  sick  ones,  under 
the  charge  of  the  pious  Brothers  of  San  Giovanni  di 
Dio." 

The  Vespucci  enjoyed  honours,  and  even  distinction 
in  Florence  of  a  dignified  sort,  eminently  character 
istic  of  the  prudent,  astute,  religious,  and  frequently 
witty  Tuscan,  at  the  same  time  merchant  and  states 
man.  Simone  di  Piero  Vespucci,  who  gained  wealth 
in  commerce,  was  noted  for  the  piety  with  which 
he  spent  large  sums  in  charity,  relieving  the  dis 
tress  of  the  poor,  and  erecting  a  hospital  on  the  31st 
of  October,  1390,  under  the  name  of  Santa  Maria 
dell'  Umiliati.  His  son  Giovanni  found  favour  with 
Alfonso,  king  of  Aragon  and  the  Two  Sicilies,  who 
made  him  a  councillor  and  associate,  bestowing 
upon  him  the  property  of  Laconia  in  the  province 
of  Calabria.  In  1346  Vespucci  di  Dolcebene  was 
elected  to  share  in  the  city  government,  filling  the 
office  of  prior,  gonfaloniere  of  justice,  and  the 
Buonomini.  To  anticipate  dates,  Messer  Guido  Ves 
pucci  was  a  legislator,  and  a  gonfaloniere  in  1487 
and  1498,  as  well  as  a  deputy  to  Pope  Sixtus  IV. 


42  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

and  to  King  Louis  XL  of  France.  He  again  sought 
the  Pontiff  in  1480  to  claim  absolution  in  the  name 
of  Florence  for  the  conspirators  of  the  Pazzi  cabal, 
and  in  1484  returned  to  take  the  oath  of  obedience 
to  the  new  Pope,  Innocent  VIII.  In  1494  he  was 
appointed  ambassador  to  the  French  King  Charles 
VIII.  when  that  monarch  meditated  a  conquest  of 
Naples ;  visited  Paris  in  1497  to  ask  aid  in  the  war 
with  Pisa ;  and  filled  missions  to  Venice  and  Milan. 
A  certain  Piero  Vespucci  was  made  ambassador  to 
King  Ferdinand  of  Naples,  who  created  him  a  cav 
alier,  and  in  1478  was  imprisoned  in  the  StincTie 
(gaol)  of  Florence  by  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  for 
having  taken  part  in  the  sacking  of  houses  in  the 
tumult  of  the  Pazzi,  as  an  ostensible,  public  accusa 
tion,  but  in  reality  for  aiding  the  escape  of  his  friend 
Napoleone  Franzezi.  This  Vespucci  was  liberated 
in  1480  by  the  mediation  of  the  Duke  of  Calabria. 
Scholars,  prelates,  notaries,  and  sagacious  negociarits 
were  not  lacking  to  the  race  ;  yet  their  abilities  were 
dwarfed  to  the  limits  of  their  own  sphere  by  the 
light  of  the  wide-spreading  fame  of  Americus  Ves- 
pucius.  Such  was  the  family  of  America's  godfather, 
the  Florentine  gentleman. 

In  the  year  of  his  birth,  1451,  Cosimo  de'  Medici, 
the  elder,  still  wielded  his  munificent  influence 
over  Florence ;  Nicholas  V.  was  Pope ;  Francesco 
Sforza  had  been  made  Duke  of  Milan  in  1450 ; 
Antonio  Bentivoglio  ruled  Bologna ;  Alfonso  I.  of 
Sicily  and  Aragon,  adopted  by  Queen  Joanna  II., 


IN   THE   MORNING  OF  LIFE.  43 

had  succeeded  in  conquering  the  entire  Neapolitan 
territory  in  1442 ;  Francesco  Foscari  was  still  Doge 
of  Venice  ;  and  Pietro  Fregoso,  Doge  of  Genoa. 
Charles  VII.  was  king  of  France,  Joan  of  Arc 
having  delivered  Orleans  ;  Henry  VI.  was  the  king 
of  England,  robbed  of  the  French  provinces  of  the 
Crown  ;  Frederick  I.,  the  Elector  Palatine,  governed 
Germany  as  regent,  as  he  had  done  since  the  death 
of  his  elder  brother  in  1449.  Other  childish  eyes 
opened  to  the  light  at  the  same  date :  Leonardo  da 
Vinci  was  born  in  1452,  Savonarola,  and  Francesco 
Francia,  master  of  sweetness  and  grace  in  the 
Bolognese  school  of  Art. 

Florence  did  not  resemble  the  modern  capital 
then.  The  Apennines  which  encircle  the  little  city 
may  have  been  more  richly  clothed  in  ilex  and 
oak,  as  marking  the  maritime  region,  six  hundred 
metres  above  the  Mediterranean  level,  with  the 
cistus,  myrtles,  and  laburnums,  while  inland  chest 
nut  swept  up  to  the  bleaker  region  of  beech,  pine, 
arbutus,  and  juniper,  shelter  of  the  shepherds, 
charcoal-burners,  and  poor  mountaineers,  culling 
the  gigantic  yellow  fungus  and  wild  strawberries 
for  food,  or  fashioning  some  primitive  utensils  out 
of  wood,  like  the  salot  workers  in  the  Vosges.  The 
city  of  the  Arno  has  been  termed  young  under 
Dante,  adolescent  with  Petrarch,  Boccaccio,  and 
Michelangelo,  and  mature  with  Galileo.  "The  re 
cital  of  her  political  and  intellectual  vicissitudes 
possesses  almost  the  interest  of  a  history  of  the 


44  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

family  for  the  nations  of  modern  Europe,  because 
Florence  is  their  elder,  and  in  some  sort  presided 
over  their  education,"  says  Dele'cluse.  Amerigo 
Vespucci  belonged  to  the  middle  course  of  the  three 
phases  of  her  development,  as  succeeding  the  primi 
tive  communes  of  Italy  and  the  south  of  France, 
where  the  consuls,  magistrates,  and  council  of  one 
hundred  senators  were  established,  in  a  rudimentary 
imitation  of  Eome.  The  republic  won  franchise, 
and  founded  an  influential  commerce,  with  the  birth 
of  a  poet  and  poetry  that  shed  glory  on  the  age  ; 
the  succeeding  oligarchy  rendered  manufacture  still 
more  flourishing,  while  erudition,  agriculture,  and  the 
arts  were  destined  to  develop  under  the  tyranny 
of  the  Medici  Grand-Dukes.  The  first  town-wall 
of  the  time  of  Charlemagne,  supposed  to  have  been 
traced  on  the  outline  of  a  Roman  settlement,  along 
the  right  bank  of  the  Arno,  with  its  four  gates,  that 
of  St.  Peter  to  the  east,  that  of  the  Bishop  north 
ward,  St.  Pancras  west,  and  Por'  Santa  Maria  in  the 
south,  had  been  enlarged  in  the  day  of  Countess 
Mathilda  to  the  boundary  begun  in  1285,  and  fin 
ished  in  1324  with  a  palisade  and  a  ditch,  which 
formed  an  irregular  demi-circle  on  the  river  between 
the  Carraia  and  Grazie  bridges  to  the  Piazza  of 
St.  Croce,  San  Lorenzo,  and  Santa  Maria  Novella 
back  to  the  Carraia  bridge.  Beyond  the  Porta  al 
Prato  was  a  large  triangular  meadow  (prato),  where 
the  youth  of  the  city  practised  military  exercises, 
while  across  the  stream,  near  the  Porta  San  Fredi- 


Church  and  Pia^a  Santa  Croce. 


IN   THE   MORNING   OF  LIFE.  45 

ano,  the  craft  anchored  that  came  up  the  Arno  from 
Leghorn,  and  mills  turned  their  wheels  in  the  wind 
on  the  bank.  Ghirlandajo  painted  a  fresco  of  the 
Madonna,  with  St.  John  and  Cosimo,  in  the  lunette 
of  the  arch  of  the  Prato  gate,  at  the  expense  of 
Cosimo  de'  Medici.  Michelangelo  is  reputed  to 
have  fortified  the  Lung'  Arno  wall  with  towers, 
bastions,  casemates,  and  a  ditch  from  the  Piazza  of 
Ognissanti  out  to  the  portal,  in  event  of  attack. 
The  streets  of  the  town  were  narrow  and  dark, 
paved  with  large  flagstones,  and  even  inlaid  with 
small  cobblestones,  while  certain  ancient  squares 
kept  the  brick  tiles,  worked  with  baked  clay  into 
a  shape  and  pattern.  At  one  date  the  city  boasted 
of  as  many  as  fifty  piazze,  the  finest  being  the 
Signoria,  San  Giovanni,  St.  Croce,  Santa  Maria  No 
vella,  and  Santo  Spirito.  In  1288  the  Commune 
bought  the  gardens  of  the  Cerchi  family  to  include 
in  the  space  of  the  square  of  Santa  Maria  Novella, 
—  the  luxury  of  such  flowering  nooks  having  been 
introduced  within  the  enclosure  of  cities  by  the 
Roman  emperors.  At  the  opening  of  the  fourteenth 
century  curious  statistics  reveal  the  opulence  of 
the  town,  —  such  as  the  annual  tide  of  three  hundred 
thousand  gold  florins  flowing  into  the  public  treasury, 
by  means  of  the  impost  (tax)  of  the  gates  on  tons 
of  wine,  grain,  sixty  thousand  sheep,  thirty  thousand 
pigs,  and  twenty  thousand  kids.  In  a  certain  month 
of  July  four  thousand  melons  were  registered  as 
passing  the  Porta  San  Frediano.  Public  function- 


46  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

aries  were  appointed  to  regulate  salaries,  the  use  of 
ornaments  by  women,  the  food  of  the  lions  kept  in 
cages  in  a  den  in  the  rear  of  the  Palazzo  Vecchio, 
the  pay  of  heralds  and  trumpeters,  and  the  expenses 
of  wax  torches  consumed  in  public  festivals.  When 
the  third  circuit  of  boundary  had  been  completed 
twenty-four  convents,  ten  monasteries,  and  thirty 
hospices,  with  beds  for  the  poor,  flourished,  schools 
of  grammar  and  logic  were  opened,  and  many 
strangers  visited  the  town. 

Florentine  palaces  and  houses  were  built  of  square 
blocks  of  stone,  or  had  the  facade  roughly  plastered 
and  decorated  in  fresco,  black  and  white,  after  the 
manner  of  Morto  da  Feltre.  and  with  the  roof  pro 
jecting  over  the  street,  —  an  architectural  feature 
which  has  been  attributed  to  the  need  of  protection 
from  sun  and  rain.  Such  habitations  had  a  court, 
stables,  a  well  of  pure  water,  a  kitchen-garden, 
logge,  a  public  lobby,  and  chambers  and  cellars  of 
the  ground-floor,  which  were  always  cool  in  mid 
summer.  As  late  as  the  year  1527  the  Venetian 
ambassador,  Marco  Foscari,  stated  that  in  the  Flor 
entine  republic  the  men  who  ruled  the  State 
descended  to  their  shops  of  wool  and  silk,  and, 
casting  back  the  end  of  their  mantles  over  the 
shoulders,  weighed  goods,  and  worked  in  public,  so 
that  all  might  behold  them  thus  employed.  The 
sons  of  citizens  served  in  the  lottega,  wearing  aprons, 
and  carrying  bags  and  bales  for  the  master.  Floren 
tines  were  accustomed  to  carry  heavy  burthens  of 
wool  and  silk  on  their  shoulders,  like  porters. 


IN   THE   MORNING   OF  LIFE.  47 

In  the  quarter  of  the  Vespucci  one  sees  in  imagi 
nation,  not  the  corporations  of  arts  and  merchants, 
the  bishops  who  shared  in  the  government,  the 
foreign  podestk,  the  guilds  of  the  larger  and  the 
smaller  crafts,  even  the  dealers  of  the  Calimala, 
dyeing  and  redressing  the  cloths  of  France,  Flanders, 
and  England,  for  the  markets  of  Europe,  Africa,  the 
Mediterranean  isles,  and  Asia,  but  the  monk,  the 
Utniliati  (humble  one),  of  the  order  of  St.  Michael 
of  Alexandria,  vowed  by  the  statutes  of  his  com 
munity  to  work  in  wool,  who  sought  Florence  in 
1239,  to  card  and  spin  the  fleeces  of  Spain,  with  the 
fulling-mills  and  dyeing-vats  of  the  industry  occupy 
ing  the  Borgognissanti,  at  first,  until  citizens,  mer 
chants,  and  shopkeepers  took  up  their  abode  here,  as 
well.  Naples  had  her  guilds,  under  the  protection  of 
St.  Gregory  at  the  end  of  the  sixth  century.  Milan, 
in  1198,  had  several  trades  dedicated  to  the  care  of 
St.  Ambrose,  with  a  treasury,  and  the  jurisdiction 
of  a  commune  within  a  commune ;  and  Pisa  had 
the  statutes  of  each  art,  with  captains,  consuls,  and 
gonfaloniere  in  1286.  Florence  later  than  her  neigh 
bours  north  and  south  organised  her  body  of  trades, 
the  carpenters  and  builders,  then  wool-weaving,  silk- 
spinning,  furriers,  apothecaries,  doctors,  grocers, 
armourers,  shoemakers,  butchers,  carters,  and  money 
changers,  —  a  hierarchy  of  industry  deemed  unique 
in  history. 

The  Carraia  bridge  belongs  to  the  memory  of  the 
monk  of  the  Umiliati.  The  Podesta  Otto  da  Mun- 


48  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

della  (1218)  laid  the  piles  of  the  foundation,  and 
two  years  later  the  Frati  furnished  the  money 
requisite  to  complete  the  New  Bridge,  as  it  was 
named,  leading  to  the  villages  on  the  other  side  of 
the  river.  Some  members  of  the  Vespucci  family 
no  doubt  attended  the  festival  of  1304,  described  by 
Villain:  — 

"  At  the  time  when  the  Cardinal  of  Prato  was  in  good 
accord  with  the  citizens  and  people,  hoping  to  make  peace 
between  them,  for  the  Calends  of  May  fetes  of  companies 
and  brigades  of  sports  all  through  the  city,  each  contrada 
against  the  other,  strove  to  create  gaiety  and  recreation, 
as  in  the  old  times  when  Florence  was  in  a  tranquil  state. 
Among  other  sports  (it  having  always  been  the  ancient 
custom  of  the  Borgo  of  San  Friano  to  introduce  new  and 
varied  diversions),  a  proclamation  was  sent  all  about,  that 
whoever  desired  to  hear  news  from  the  other  world  must 
be  on  the  bridge  of  Carraia,  or  on  the  Arno  banks  on  the 
day  of  the  Calends  of  May,  when  they  arranged  boats  and 
floating  platforms  on  which  the  infernal  regions,  with 
fires  and  torments,  with  demons  horrible  to  see,  and 
others  figuring  naked  souls,  which  were  put  to  diverse 
tortures,  with  fearful  cries  and  shrieks,  the  which  was 
frightful  both  to  hear  and  to  see ;  and,  as  this  novelty  had 
attracted  many  citizens,  and  the  bridge  was  crowded  and 
packed  with  people,  it  fell  —  being  then  of  wood  —  with 
the  great  weight  of  the  people  on  it,  whereby  many  were 
drowned  in  the  Arno,  and  many  others  were  injured,  so 
that  the  sport  from  simulation  proved  to  be  true,  as  the 
proclamation  had  stated,  and  some  by  death  went  to  learn 
news  of  the  other  world,  to  the  great  grief  of  all  the  town, 


IN   THE   MORNING   OF   LIFE.  49 

each  one  having  lost  a  sou,  or  a  brother.  And  this  was 
a  sign  of  future  misfortune  which  was  soon  to  fall  upon 
our  city  for  the  excessive  sins  of  the  inhabitants,  as  we 
shall  presently  relate." 

One  would  like  to  know  more  of  the  childhood  of 
Amerigo  Vespucci ;  but  no  mediaeval  gossip  of  his 
race,  like  Agnolo  Pandolfini,  and  Buonaccorso  Pitti, 
has  left  us  such  amusing  and  interesting  record. 
In  all  history  we  wish  for  the  warmth  of  a  Carlyle, 
or  a  Macaulay  in  character  drawing,  and  to  learn 
how  the  person  delineated  by  posterity  was  clothed 
and  lodged,  how  he  looked  and  spoke,  how  he  sor 
rowed  and  rejoiced,  in  fact,  what  sort  of  world  it 
was  in  which  he  worked,  sighed,  and  hoped,  from 
the  cradle  to  the  grave.  The  house  where  Amerigo 
was  born  must  have  possessed  the  usual  features  of 
such  dwellings,  the  windows  and  doors  of  the  lower 
story  being  strongly  barred,  a  stone  stairway  leading 
up  from  the  court  to  the  family  living  chambers, 
which  consisted  of  an  apartment  of  state  hung  with 
damask,  and  appointed  with  heavy  tables  and  chairs 
of  polished  wood ;  the  dining-room,  with  a  ceiling  of 
beams,  and  frescoed  walls,  flanked  by  the  long  seats 
(cassoni},  and  oaken  sideboard,  holding  majolica, 
and  silver  flagons  ;  and  the  kitchen  near  by  with 
the  rafters  strung  with  produce  from  the  country 
property :  hams,  bacon,  sausages,  garlic,  dried  figs* 
and  grapes,  and  pots  and  coarse  ware.  The  store 
rooms  below  were  sure  to  be  amply  stocked  with 

4 


50  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

grain,  fruit,  onions,  and   cheese,  and   cellars  with 
casks  of  wine. 

What  manner  of  woman  was  Elisabetta  Mini? 
Oh,  for  a  vivid  contemporary  portrait  of  the  mother 
of  the  man  who  still  enjoys  such  a  singular,  and 
much  disputed  fame !  We  are  not  told  that  she 
had  wonderful  dreams  before  his  birth,  as  did  the 
mother  of  Dante.  She  belonged  to  that  company 
of  noble  ladies  of  the  period,  Lucrezia  Tornabuoni, 
mother  of  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  who  composed 
sacred  rhymes  and  Carnival  songs  for  Florence ; 
Costanza  da  Varano  of  the  Signore  di  Camerino, 
born  in  1428,  and  estimated  as  the  most  celebrated 
woman  of  the  century,  after  praying  Bianca  Visconti, 
wife  of  Francesco  Sforza,  to  restore  the  family  seig- 
neury  to  her  brother  Eidolfo  in  a  Latin  oration,  at 
the  age  of  fourteen  years ;  Laura  Brenzoni  Schioppi 
the  Veronese;  Serafina  Colonna,  Anna  di  Spina,  a 
Roman,  deemed  an  admirable  versifier ;  Isabella  of 
Aragon,  wife  of  Gian  Galeazzo  Sforza ;  and  Ippolita 
Sforza,  daughter  of  Francesco,  consort  of  Alfonso  II. 
of  Naples,  who  wrote  two  Latin  compositions  in  the 
Ambrosiana  collection,  the  first  in  praise  of  her 
mother  Bianca,  and  the  second  a  eulogy  on  Pope  Pius 
II. ;  as  well  as  Alessandra  Scala,  daughter  of  Barto- 
lommeo,  beloved  of  Politian,  and  wife  of  Michele 
Marullo,  famous  for  her  Greek  epigrams  ;  or  Cassan 
dra  Fedele,  the  Venetian,  proficient  in  music,  philoso 
phy,  Greek,  and  Latin.  As  a  bride  the  notary  arranged 
the  wedding  settlements,  the  dowry  of  the  maiden, 


IN  THE   MORNING  OF  LIFE.  51 

and  even  the  amount  of  household  linen  stored  in  her 
wedding  chests  (cassoni),  and  jewels.  That  was  the 
prosaic  side  of  the  matrimonial  question,  which 
prevails  to  this  day  in  the  poetical  and  classical 
land  of  flowers  and  the  sun.  In  early  times  a  girl's 
dowry  was  limited  to  one  hundred  lira,  but  gradu 
ally  increased  to  a  demand  for  fifteen  hundred,  two 
thousand,  and  three  thousand  florins  by  prudent 
parents  of  eligible  sons.  Also,  at  that  epoch,  a 
damsel  of  good  position,  whether  Tuscan,  or  Eoman, 
was  given  a  picture  of  value  in  addition  to  her  other 
trinkets,  wardrobe,  and  marriage  settlements,  so  that 
Elisabetta  Mini  may  reasonably  be  supposed  to  have 
brought  to  the  house  in  the  Via  Borgognissanti  her 
wedding  chests  bravely  painted  with  curious  alle 
gorical  designs  by  'some  famous  artist,  seats  of 
Spanish  chestnut  wood  and  walnut,  a  coverlet  of 
precious  needlework  for  the  great  Cinque  Cento  bed, 
with  the  baldacchino,  or  canopy  of  heavy  draperies, 
a  prie-dieu  mounted  on  gilded  claws,  and  a  vessel 
attached  to  the  wall  to  hold  holy  water,  either  fash 
ioned  of  majolica,  or  a  carved  pilgrim's  shell  of  pearl. 
Etruscan  urns,  Eoman  amphorae,  lamps  of  terra 
cotta,  hangings  of  stamped  leather,  portieres  of  vel 
vet,  wrought  with  the  family  arms,  panels  of  ivory, 
and  the  sparkle  of  Venetian  glass  tazze  may  have 
invaded  these  sombre  rooms,  in  time,  as  a  part  of 
the  taste  for  enervating  luxury  sternly  reprimanded 
by  Dante. 

Elisabetta  Mini  appears,  for  a  moment,  before  us 


52  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

in  the  dark  thoroughfare,  like  a  fleeting  sunbeam, 
attired  in  her  white  zimarra,  embroidered  with 
pearls,  her  head-dress,  and  veil,  coming  from  the 
ceremony  of  the  church  to  take  the  seat  of  honour 
beside  her  bridegroom  at  the  wedding  feast,  —  when 
a  poet  did  not  fail  to  recite  an  ode,  composed  for  the 
occasion,  —  and  pass  the  evening  al  fresco  with  a  gay 
company  of  guests  and  musicians  in  the  space  of  street 
before  the  mansion,  carpeted  and  adorned.  As  a 
wife,  did  she  hold  a  cushion  on  her  lap  for  lace- 
making,  and  wield  the  spindle  of  bone  in  weaving 
delicate  meshes,  and  embroider  priestly  vestments  for 
some  favourite  sanctuary  ;  tasks  varied  by  turning 
the  pages  of  her  one  book,  a  volume  of  devotions, 
or  poems,  superbly  bound  in  velvet,  with  clasps  of 
enamel,  silver,  and  gold?  Did  she  ride  forth  to 
public  joust  or  tournament,  in  brocaded  robes, 
mounted  on  a  steed  richly  caparisoned  with  trap 
pings  of  velvet  and  silk  ?  Wheeled  vehicles  did  not 
belong  to  her  day.  The  ladies  of  the  family  of  Cibo, 
the  Marchesane  of  Massa,  dwellin  in  the  palace  of 
the  Pazzi,  in  1534,  used  the  first  carriage,  which  was 
covered  with  cloth  in  the  shape  of  a  pavilion,  and 
had  a  door  in  the  side,  an  excess  of  pomp  which 
scandalised  all  worthy  burghers,  and  was  satirised 
by  the  poets.  Was  she  a  notable  housewife,  super 
intending  servants,  accomplished  in  the  serving  of 
the  peacock  in  his  plumage,  the  capon  stuffed  with 
mushrooms  and  chestnuts,  the  roasted  kid,  the  larks 
stewed  with  grapes,  the  wild-boar  in  some  equiva- 


IN   THE   MORNING   OF   LIFE.  53 

lent  of  the  modern  agro  dolce  sauce,  compounded  of 
sugar,  vinegar,  citron,  pine-nuts,  raisins,  and  spices, 
and  the  dressing  in  oil  of  such  fishes  as  the  tenches 
of  the  marshes  ?  Did  she  make  confetti  and  pastry 
with  her  own  hands,  like  the  French  chatelaine  ? 
When  Catherine  de'  Medici,  known  as  the  Duches- 
sina,  was  being  educated  in  the  convent  of  the 
Murate  at  Florence,  the  nuns  made  a  certain  cake, 
or  tart,  called  lerlingozzi,  for  gifts  wherewith  to 
propitiate  high  functionaries  of  the  commonwealth. 
The  art  of  making  confectionery  is  attributed  to 
Cappadocia,  and  the  first  pastry-cook  appeared  on  the 
stage  of  grateful  Europe  in  The'arion,  a  Sicilian,  in 
the  year  B.  c.  157.  A  French  chart  of  802  records 
the  order  of  Louis  le  De'bonnaire  to  a  certain  farmer 
to  furnish  the  Abbey  of  St.  Denis  with  five  muids 
of  flour  in  order  that  the  monks  might  regale  them 
selves  with  some  good  pastry. 

Dame  Vespucci  was  familiar  with  sugar,  since  the 
Chinese  gave  the  cane  to  the  Arabians  toward  the 
close  of  the  thirteenth  century,  although  a  Venetian 
only  found  the  secret  of  purifying  the  article,  and 
making  the  delicacy  into  a  loaf  in  1471.  She  knew 
the  value  of  those  Eastern  luxuries,  pepper,  cloves, 
cinnamon,  and  nutmeg  from  Java  and  Ceylon. 
Favours  were  sought  of  sovereigns  by  obsequious 
courtiers,  as  the  gift  of  spices  from  the  Abbot  of  St. 
Gilles,  Languedoc,  1 1 63,  to  King  Louis  le  Jeune.  The 
condiment  mustard  must  have  seasoned  her  viands, 
whether  as  derived  from  the  plant  seneve,  the  mus- 


54 

turn  ardens  of  scorched  palates,  or  the  much  disputed 
Moutarde  Dijonnoise  of  1382,  traced  to  the  arms 
sculptured  on  a  town  gate  of  Dijon  of  the  Duke  of 
Burgundy,  Philippe  le  Hardi,  with  the  device  Moult 
me  tarde.  The  board  of  the  Vespucci  no  longer  had 
the  slices  of  bread  cut  round  to  serve  as  a  plate, 
afterwards  given  to  the  poor,  a  usage  described  by 
Virgil  in  the  repast  of  the  companions  of  ^Eneas,  and 
followed  by  King  Louis  XII.  of  France.  The  knife 
is  of  such  antiquity  as  to  be  traced  to  Abraham,  al 
though  manufactories  of  cutlery  were  first  renowned 
in  France  in  the  tenth  century.  Did  the  lady  use 
a  napkin  at  meals  ?  Was  she  skilful  in  employing 
a  silver  fork  ?  Near  the  wide  chimney  of  the  sala 
was  always  a  sink,  with  a  copper  vessel  in  which  to 
wash  the  hands  before  going  to  table,  and  a  towel 
Later,  servants  passed  silver  ewers  for  these  rites  of 
ablution.  Before  the  sixteenth  century  Florence 
began  to  cool  her  wine  in  wells,  and  the  use  of  ice  is 
more  than  hinted  at  in  beverages  and  dishes,  even 
in  winter,  by  sundry  authorities.  Did  modern 
America  acquire  this  reprehensible  habit  from  her 
godfather,  the  Florentine  gentleman  ?  We  may 
well  believe  that  Madonna  Elisabetta  sipped  iced 
water,  flavoured  with  lemon,  jessamine,  cinnamon, 
or  sugar,  on  occasion. 

Two  sons  were  born  to  the  lady,  and  then  a  third, 
Amerigo.  Was  he  carried  to  the  baptistery,  a  wee 
bundle  of  swaddling  clothes,  and  christened  Amerigo, 
a  name  Latinized  as  Americus,  and  derived  from 


fta  Signoria. 


IN   THE   MORNING   OF  LIFE.  55 

the  old  High  German  Amalrich,  signifying  the 
steadfast,  according  to  the  Edinburgh  Keview  of 
July,  1892  ?  The  Christian  appellation  had  never 
been  an  uncommon  one  in  Italy — from  Amerigo 
di  Mazzeo,  Amerigo  da  Narbona  of  Liguria,  Amerigo 
Donati  of  1333,  Amerigo  Cavalcanti,  Grand  Cham 
berlain  of  the  court  of  Naples,  in  1316,  to  Amerigo 
degli  Albizzi  in  the  sixteenth  century,  as  well  as 
a  Cavaliere  Amerigo  Strozzi.  We  find  an  Amerigo 
Gondi  di  Cerretani  in  our  time.  Amerigo  di 
Bardi  was  the  father  of  Dianora.  Doubtless  the 
infant  Vespucci  had  for  nurse  a  peasant  woman 
from  Peretola,  as  Michelangelo  was  consigned  to 
the  care  of  the  stone-cutter's  wife  at  Settignano. 
The  foster  mother  is  another  living  picture  in  the 
dark  street,  warmly  coloured  by  the  sun,  and  robust, 
animated,  and  smiling,  returning  to  visit  her  charge 
in  childhood,  twirling  a  distaff  where  her  descen 
dants  now  knit,  or  plait  straw  as  they  walk.  Did 
Amerigo  Vespucci  await  the  coming  of  the  Befana 
at  the  Epiphany,  and  spread  hay  on  the  hearth  for 
her  donkey 

How  real  the  presence  of  Madonna  Elisabetta 
walking  abroad,  enveloped  in  her  wimple,  with  her 
little  son  Amerigo  clinging  to  her  hand  or  her 
skirts  !  Florence  had  spectacles  enough  for  juvenile 
eyes  in  those  days.  Instead  of  pinning  a  paper 
ladder  to  the  shawl  of  a  matron,  a  boy  could  share 
such  diversions  as  those  described  by  an  ancient 
chronicler  of  1400  when  the  Piazza  Signoria  was 


56  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

adorned  with  the  tributary  banners  of  Pisa,  Volterra, 
Arezzo,  Pistoja,  and  Cortona,  and  one  hundred 
towers,  made  of  wood  and  pasteboard,  mounted  on 
cars,  surrounded  the  square,  having  devices  of 
animals,  trees,  and  fruit,  while  mechanical  figures 
of  all  colours,  horses,  warriors,  and  dancing  girls 
moved  about  these  gilded  structures.  During  the 
festivities  of  May  there  occurred  the  procession 
from  the  country,  consisting  of  women  of  the  people 
divided  into  three  classes,  girls,  matrons,  and 
widows,  chanting  and  carrying  wax  and  flowers, 
and  then  men,  preceded  by  priests  with  a  crucifix, 
leading  an  ass  loaded  with  a  barrel  of  oil,  and  a 
youth  dressed  as  an  angel,  perched  on  the  top.  These 
offerings  were  destined  for  the  church  of  the  Annun- 
ziata.  May  not  mother  and  child  have  eaten  boiled 
chestnuts  and  drunk  new  wine  on  the  festa  of  San 
Simone  ?  Peep-shows  cannot  have  failed  to  amuse 
the  little  Vespucci  with  the  capers  of  those  puppets 
that  still  represented  the  satire  and  moral  of  Italian 
cities  and  provinces.  To  the  masks  of  the  Latin 
comedy  —  Maccus,  the  clown,  Bucco,  the  glutton, 
Pappus,  the  good  papa,  and  the  wise  Dossemus  —  had 
succeeded  the  Pantaleone  of  Venice,  the  old  merchant 
vain  and  gallant,  Scaramouch,  the  boastful  adven 
turer,  the  amiable  Harlequin  of  Bergamo,  the  lovely 
Cassandra  of  Siena,  the  pedantic  doctor  of  Bologna, 
and  Stenterello,  the  eternal  dupe,  of  Rome,  or  the 
immediate  ancestors  of  these  famous  actors.  Did 
Amerigo  accompany  his  mother  to  the  churches  on 


IN   THE   MORNING    OF   LIFE.  57 

Saturdays  after  vespers  to  join  in  singing  spiritual 
songs  with  men,  women,  and  children  ?  Instruction 
was  not  lacking  to  a  boy  belonging  to  the  class  of 
the  immediate  precursors  of  Savonarola's  band  of 
children,  who  burned  the  funeral  pyre  of  the 
Vanities.  Nine  companies  in  Florence  taught  and 
led  the  children  in  procession  and  singing  lauds  in 
the  sanctuaries. 

"  I  learned  Latin  without  fear  or  chastisement  in 
the  midst  of  the  caresses,  smiles,  and  play  of  my 
nurses,"  said  St.  Augustine. 

Childhood  must  have  listened  spellbound  to  dark 
histories  of  the  times,  as  well,  —  such  as  when  the 
two  boys  of  the  Cancellieri  family  of  Pistoja  played 
together,  and  the  son  of  Guglielmo  Cancellieri  acci 
dentally  hurt  Geri,  son  of  Bertuccio  Cancellieri. 
Full  of  concern,  Guglielmo  sent  his  boy  to  ask 
pardon  of  Bertaccio,  when  the  latter,  transported  by 
rage,  seized  the  lad,  and  cut  off  his  hand.  Hence 
arose  the  conflicts  of  the  Blacks  and  the  Whites. 
Pistoja  became  divided  into  two  camps  of  the  angry 
kinsmen,  and,  the  feud  extending  to  Florence,  the 
Neri  chose  Corso  Donati  for  their  leader,  and  the 
JBiancki  Messer  Veri  de'  Cerchi.  Medical  science  of 
our  day  would,  no  doubt,  like  to  test  the  state  of 
liver,  or  nerves  of  Bertuccio  Cancellieri,  when  he 
lost  his  temper  with  such  disastrous  results  to  his 
fellow  creatures ;  while  Leigh  Hunt  might  have 
gravely  questioned  the  pernicious  effects  of  olive 
oil  in  diet  as  too  heating  for  the  stomach  and  blood 


58  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

of  the  Italian.  From  a  historical  standpoint,  Pope 
Boniface  VIII. ,  and  his  successor  Benedict  XL, 
strove  to  make  peace  between  these  turbulent  fac 
tions,  through  the  mediation  of  the  Cardinal  Niccolo 
of  Prato,  who  gathered  the  Florentines  on  the  Piazza 
of  Santa  Maria  Novella,  to  attain  this  end,  on  the 
twenty-sixth  of  April,  1204. 

Even  more  thrilling  was  the  recital  of  that  date 
of  the  wicked  priest  Neri  Abati,  prior  of  San  Pier 
Scheraggio,  —  probably  insane,  —  who,  in  1304,  set 
fire  to  the  house  of  a  relative  near  Or'  San  Michele, 
and  then  to  a  second  mansion  of  the  Caponsachi 
family  in  the  Via  Calimala,  and,  a  strong  north 
wind  prevailing,  twelve  hundred  buildings  in  the 
heart  of  the  town  were  burned,  comprising  churches, 
palaces,  streets,  and  logge,  all  reduced  to  ashes. 

In  reverie  one  likes  best  to  conjure  up  the  pres 
ence  of  Madama  Vespucci  and  her  little  son  moving 
about  old  Florence,  the  Piazza  delle  Cipolle  (onions), 
the  Canto  alia  Paglia  (straw),  the  street  of  the 
cheesemonger,  Via  Cacciajuoli,  the  Via  Calzuoli, 
renowned  for  the  manufacture  of  the  serge  stockings 
worn  by  the  Emperor  Charles  V.  as  a  compliment  to 
the  city  in  1536  ;  and  the  squares  of  the  chestnuts 
(marroni*),  of  oil,  of  eggs,  of  hemp,  and  curds 
(ricotte).  Did  they  not  occasionally  pause  to  listen 
to  the  bells  of  Santa  Maria  degli  Unghi,  the  church 
of  the  seventh  century,  now  the  modern  oratory  of 
the  Strozzina?  These  bells  were  cast  by  Niccolo 
Caparra,  and  the  government  allowed  them  to  ring 


IN   THE   MORNING   OF  LIFE.  59 

at  sunset.  Also,  they  may  have  prayed  in  the  very 
ancient  church  of  St.  Elizabeth,  situated  on  a 
little  piazza  of  the  same  name,  leading  to  the  Via 
dell'  Oche  (geese),  a  temple  once  dedicated  to  St. 
Michael  of  the  Trumpet,  and  the  body  of  Trum 
peters  of  the  Signory  once  dwelt  around  the  walls. 

The  house  in  the  Borgognissanti  boasted  the 
scutcheon  of  the  Vespucci, —  bands  of  azure,  a  swarm 
of  golden  wasps  on  a  red  field,  with  four  quarterings 
of  silver,  and  a  gilded  vase  holding  a  gillyflower  of 
the  natural  size.  The  coat-of-arrns  is  not  as  sugges 
tive  as  that  of  many  of  the  noble  houses  of  Florence, 
unless  the  swarm  of  wasps  be  accepted  as  the  stings 
of  posterity  on  the  fame  of  the  son  Amerigo.  The 
Medici  balls  have  been  designated  as  the  golden 
apples  of  the  Hesperides ;  the  Ruccellai  family  have 
a  sail  inflated ;  and  the  Tolomei,  the  pretty  device 
of  a  bunch  of  grapes,  covered  with  three  leaves  and 
tendrils,  with  the  motto,  Quce  tegit  ornat. 

Thus  the  morning  of  life  opened  for  Amerigo 
Vespucci  in  the  land  of  the  vine,  the  mulberry,  and 
the  fig,  where  the  Etruscan  Greek  and  the  Eoman 
had  passed  away,  leaving  mighty  records  of  their 
power  and  civilization  in  the  ruins  of  their  cities  ; 
and  he  was  destined  to  aid  in  solving  the  problem 
of  the  migration  of  the  races  of  the  future. 


CHAPTEE  V. 

YOUTH. 

WHEN  one  meditates  on  the  youth  of  Amerigo 
Vespucci,  a  figure  familiar  in  the  designs  of  the 
painters  of  the  fifteenth  century  fills  the  mind :  a 
lad  clad  in  a  silk  jerkin,  with  slashed  sleeves 
revealing  fine  linen,  parti-coloured  hose,  and  a  little 
cap  on  his  long  hair.  The  background  setting  of 
this  typical  image  in  the  group  of  Vespucci  habita 
tions  of  the  Borgognissanti  is  such  a  fresco  of  the 
period  as  was  recently  uncovered  in  the  Old  Market 
of  Florence,  representing  rich  antique  stuffs  and 
tapestry,  as  if  suspended  on  rings  and  rods  around 
the  walls  of  a  chamber,  and  a  scutcheon  in  intricate 
design  of  ornamentation. 

Two  men  of  serious  mien  guard  careless  adoles 
cence,  with  the  floating  locks  crowned  by  the  gaily 
tinted  little  caps,  the  father  and  the  uncle  of  Amerigo 
Vespucci.  Ser  Anastasio,  notary  of  the  Signory, 
wears  the  attire  of  a  citizen  of  his  class,  the  lucca  of 
black  serge,  with  ample  sleeves,  a  cap  on  his  head, 
and  a  double  strip  of  cloth,  the  becchetto,  one  end 
falling  on  the  cheek,  and  the  other  wound  around 
the  neck.  Black  was  rapidly  becoming  the  favourite 


YOUTH.  61 

hue  with  men  and  women  of  maturity,  either  in  the 
coarser  woollen  fabrics  of  Flanders  and  Perpignan 
and  velvet,  tabi,  a  wavy  silk,  for  summer  use,  ter- 
zanella,  a  stuff  made  of  silk  of  an  inferior  quality, 
and  sarcenet.  The  fashion  of  France  and  Milan 
in  adding  embroidery  and  gold  fringes,  as  well  as 
the  taffetas  and  grosgrain  of  Holland,  belonged  to 
the  sixteenth  century.  Equally  important  in  the 
development  of  America's  godfather  was  the  uncle, 
Giorgio  Antonio  Vespucci,  in  the  garb  of  a  priestly 
scholar,  who  superintended  the  boy's  education. 

Fain  would  we  know  more  of  the  teacher  of 
youth,  Giorgio  Antonio  Vespucci,  than  any  con 
temporary  record  vouchsafes  us,  as  shedding  clearer 
light  on  the  real  character  of  his  pupil  in  making 
those  four  voyages  to  America  than  will  ever  shine 
on  the  path  of  an  obscure  man,  now,  in  this  world. 
What  influence  did  Antonio  Vespucci,  the  uncle, 
exercise  on  the  awakening  mind  of  the  nephew, 
Amerigo  Vespucci?  What  opinion  had  the  master 
of  the  capacity,  probity,  arid  temperament  of  the 
scholar  ?  Who  knows  ?  A  certain  sentiment  of 
pride  in  training  the  lad  up  to  the  existing  standard 
of  education  requisite  in  his  position  as  a  Florentine 
gentleman,  as  well  as  a  kinsman,  must  have  accorded 
with  the  innate,  immeasurable  superiority  to  all 
contemporaries  inherent  in  the  race  in  the  senior. 
Both  were  citizens  of  no  mean  city,  and  in  an  age 
flowering  into  the  manifold  splendours  of  the  Eenais- 
sance.  We  must  not  forget  that  a  portion  of  the 


62  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

obloquy,  as  well  as  the  neglect  of  silence  in  ignoring 
him  altogether,  cast  on  the  fame  of  the  discoverer 
in  later  years  emanated  from  the  multifarious  ele 
ments  of  rival  nations,  or  unscrupulous,  perhaps 
ignorant  fortune-seekers  who  designated  him  as  a 
"  Florentine  adventurer  "  in  the  confusion  of  wrang 
ling  to  wrest  from  him  the  prize  that  had  fallen  into 
his  hand. 

The  uncle,  Giorgio  Antonio  Vespucci,  was  regarded 
as  one  of  the  learned  men  of  the  fifteenth  century. 
He  translated  from  the  Greek  the  documents  of 
Sextus  Empiricus,  and  was  admitted  to  intimate 
association  with  the  Platonic  Academy.  He  is 
mentioned  by  Bandini  as  a  worthy  embodiment  of 
Florentine  integrity  and  piety  in  his  career.  Aban 
doning  all  the  paths  of  earthly  pleasure,  and  the 
comfort  of  his  own  house,  he  retired  to  the  monas 
tery  of  San  Marco,  and  took  the  vows  of  a  Domini 
can  under  the  sway  of  Savonarola.  He  died  at  the 
convent  of  Fiesole  on  the  seventeenth  of  April,  1514, 
at  the  age  of  eighty  years.  That  which  concerns  an 
American  more  nearly  than  any  subsequent  religious 
meditations,  according  to  his  creed,  of  the  worthy 
preceptor  is  that  he  taught  Amerigo  Vespucci  his 
tory,  geometry,  languages,  and  physics.  The  boy  is 
reputed  to  have  diligently  studied  cosmography, 
astronomy,  and  navigation.  What  sort  of  instruc 
tor  was  Antonio  Vespucci  ?  Did  the  spirit  of  a 
Froebel  of  any  century  dwell  within  him?  Did 
he  strengthen  the  memory  of  his  renowned  pupil 


Portrait  of  Savonarola. 


YOUTH.  63 

after  the  method  of  Pietro  Francesco  de'  Tommasi 
of  Padua,  by  requiring  him  to  render  grammar  and 
jurisprudence  into  verse  ?  Did  he  emulate  Guarino, 
Aurispa,  and  Gasparone,  who  kept  school  at  Novara, 
in  1431,  with  such  success  ?  He  may  have  had  his 
walls  and  portals  covered  with  pictures  of  the  earth, 
with  its  nations,  towns,  continents,  oceans,  and 
rivers,  as  the  Gallo-Romari  orator  Euminius  adorned 
his  abode,  in  order  to  explain  to  youth  the  system 
of  the  universe,  and  the  invincible  power  of  ruling 
princes  in  some  campaign  in  Persia,  Libya,  on  the 
banks  of  the  Nile,  and  of  the  Rhine,  thus :  — 

"  Behold  this  territory,  —  it  is  Egypt,  and  chastised  by 
the  arm  of  Diocletian,  and  wearied  by  her  own  rebellious 
spirit,  she  now  rests  submissive  and  repentant.  Here  are 
Carthage  and  Africa.  Maximian  subdued  the  revolted 
Moors.  This  isle  is  Britain,  and  yonder  humid  land  cov 
ered  with  forests  is  Batavia.  Constantine  has  brought 
both  into  subjection  under  the  laws  of  the  Empire.  You 
perceive  down  there  the  Euphrates,  and  the  Tigris,  where 
Maximianus  Galerius  trampled  under  foot  the  bows  and 
quivers  of  the  Persians.  It  is  well  for  a  Roman  to  study 
the  world  when  he  owns  all." 

Possibly  the  imagination  of  the  uncle,  Antonio 
Vespucci,  was  infected  by  the  manifold  astrological 
subtleties  of  the  times,  when  Paolo,  the  geometri 
cian,  enjoyed  additional  fame  as  an  arithmetician  in 
adequations,  and  an  astronomer  familiar  with 
ancient  as  well  as  more  recent  systems  of  reasoning. 
Paolo  was  a  diligent  observer  of  the  stars,  and  the 


64  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

movements  of  the  planets  proved  the  inutility  of 
the  Tables  of  Ptolemy,  and  the  instruments  of  the 
astrolabe,  according  to  these  tables,  as  deviations 
from  the  rules  of  astrology  and  astronomy.  Under 
similar  influences,  Amerigo  Vespucci  may  have 
early  begun  to  dream  of  the  mysteries  of  destiny, 
and,  like  the  late  King  Victor  Emmanuel,  have 
awaited  his  star.  Astrology  throve  in  the  four 
teenth,  fifteenth,  and  sixteenth  centuries  fostered 
by  Alfonso  X.  at  Toledo,  Charles  V.,  Louise  of 
Savoy,  mother  of  Francis  I.,  Catherine  de'  Medici, 
Henry  IV.  of  Navarre,  at  the  birth  of  Louis  XIII.  of 
France,  and  even  Anne  of  Austria  had  his  horoscope 
cast  in  the  infancy  of  Louis  XIV.  Dante  consigned 
all  divinators  and  astrologers  to  one  of  the  circles 
of  Hades,  while  Petrarch  condemned  them  with  no 
less  severity.  The  intellectual  Petrarch  did  not 
allow  himself  to  be  drawn  away  with  the  popu 
lar  current.  He  gives  a  very  graphic  description 
of  the  folly  of  the  pretended  science  in  a  letter  to 
Boccaccio :  — 

44  Perhaps  you  have  heard  that  in  the  last  expedition  to 
Pavia,  the  gentleman  who  governs  us  —  Galeazzo  Visconti  — 
wishing  to  besiege  the  place,  all  the  astrologers  shuddered, 
and  especially  our  own,  a  man  of  such  great  fame,  who  is 
believed  by  the  common  people  to  rather  anticipate  than 
merely  forecast  the  future.  He  was  able  to  delay  the 
march  of  the  army  —  already  ordered  —  for  some  days, 
saying  it  was  best  to  await  the  hour  ordained  by  the 
heavens.  When,  finally,  it  seemed  to  him  to  have  arrived, 


YOUTH.  65 

all  the  legions  moved  at  his  command.  For  many 
months  the  sky  had  been  serene,  and  the  earth  parched 
with  drought,  when  behold!  on  that  very  day,  and  for 
many  days  and  nights  afterwards,  there  fell  such  heavy 
rains  that  all  the  plain  and  camp  were  inundated,  and 
those  who  should  have  conquered  by  arms  were  nearly 
conquered  themselves  by  the  waters. 

"This  same  astrologer,  at  the  commencement  of  the 
rule  of  the  three  brothers,  Matteo,  Barnabo,  and  Gale- 
azzo  Visconti,  selected  with  great  care  the  particular 
moment  in  which  there  should  be  conferred  on  them  the 
insignia  of  the  principality ;  and  while  I  was  addressing 
the  multitude  in  that  august  assembly,  as  I  had  been 
enjoined,  he  interrupted  me,  saying  the  hour  had  arrived? 
and  it  was  perilous  to  allow  it  to  pass.  I,  although  I 
well  knew  the  folly  of  this,  to  avoid  incurring  the  hatred 
of  these  madmen,  was  silent,  although  I  had  not  reached 
the  middle  of  my  discourse.  He  then  paused,  hesitating, 
and  as  if  astonished,  and  said  to  me  that  there  was  still 
some  time  before  the  hour  would  arrive,  therefore  I  could 
continue.  I  replied,  smiling,  that  after  closing  ray  dis 
course,  I  had  only  to  add  to  it,  and  no  other  story  came 
to  my  mind  to  recount  to  the  Milanese  people.  He  became 
agitated,  and  rubbed  his  forehead  gently  with  his  nails, 
while  some  meanwhile  became  angry,  and  others  laughed, 
until  he  finally  exclaimed  :  f  The  hour  has  come  ! ' 
Then  a  soldier  charged  with  the  duty  took  three  fine 
stakes,  straight  and  white,  placed  one  in  the  hands  of 
each  brother,  with  words  of  good  augury,  but  with  so 
long  an  interval  of  time  between  one  and  the  other,  that 
—  if  it  be  true,  what  is  told  of  the  wheel  of  Nigidio 
Figulo  —  one  should  believe  with  reason  that  a  very 

5 


66  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

diverse  fate  might  have  the  mastery  of  them  ;  it  was 
otherwise,  for  the  elder  before  the  year  was  out  had  lost 
the  Signoria  of  Bologna,  and  later  his  life,  at  a  still  fresh 
age.  The  other  two,  after  ten  years,  live,  and  reign 
prosperously." 

Alchemy  reduced  many  ardent  partisans  to 
poverty.  Saint  Thomas  of  Aquinas  did  not  believe 
the  changing  of  other  subtances  into  gold  to  be 
impossible.  Arnaldo  di  Villanuova,  living  at  Naples 
in  1294,  performed  the  act  of  transmuting  metals 
in  the  presence  of  the  celebrated  Kaimondo  Lullo, 
who  visited  Milan  later,  to  practise  alchemy. 

Tiraboschi  is  of  the  opinion  that  a  letter  to  his 
father  by  Amerigo  Vespucci,  at  the  age  of  fifteen 
or  sixteen  years,  evinces  very  mediocre  abilities. 
The  letters  of  lads  of  that  age  are  not  usually  of  a 
dazzling  brilliancy  either  of  ideas,  or  composition, 
and  are  indited,  as  a  rule,  reluctantly,  and  under 
the  constraint  of  some  necessity.  Boccaccio  recounts 
of  King  Robert  of  Naples,  pronounced  the  wisest 
sovereign  among  Christians  for  five  hundred  years, 
that  his  father  found  him  in  early  years  of  a  slow 
and  torpid  intelligence,  acquiring  the  elements  of 
grammar  and  the  sciences  only  with  difficulty,  until 
a  master  by  means  of  JEsop's  Fables  succeeded  in 
instilling  into  his  mind  an  eager  thirst  to  learn  the 
liberal  arts,  as  well  as  the  most  profound  doctrines 
of  philosophy,  so  that  Solomon  could  not  have 
excelled  him  in  maturity.  Bandini  states  that  the 
favourite  authors  of  Amerigo  Vespucci,  as  instructed 


YOUTH.  67 

by  his  uncle,  were  Virgil  in  Latin,  and  Dante  and 
Petrarch  in  his  native  Tuscan.  Did  he,  also,  study 
Seneca,  Aristotle,  Ovid,  Cicero,  Livy,  Pliny,  Saint 
Augustine,  and  Saint  Ambrose  ?  One  pictures  him 
as  possessing  some  element  of  the  dignity  of  superi 
ority  as  a  Florentine  citizen  of  Dante  in  foreign 
lands,  for  the  rare  details  left  of  Amerigo  Vespucci 
do  not  reveal  him  as  loudly  blustering  over  those 
misfortunes  which  are  reputed  to  have  awakened 
the  sympathy  of  Columbus,  or  maintaining  a  swag 
gering  and  boastful  demeanour  such  as  could  not 
have  failed  to  render  him  a  more  conspicuous  person 
among  his  contemporaries.  Petrarch  would  have 
assuredly  charmed  the  pupil  of  Antonio  Vespucci, 
whether  in  the  lines  of  the  Vita  Solitaria,  or  the 
Disprezzo  del  Hondo.  He  may  have  shared  the  hero- 
worship  of  the  worthy  goldsmith  of  Bergamo,  Arrigo 
Capra,  who  closed  his  shop  and  spent  his  fortune  in 
adorning  his  house  with  busts  and  portraits  of  the  poet 
as  well  as  having  his  entire  works  copied  at  great 
expense.  The  date  of  October  thirteenth,  1358,  was 
the  happiest  day  in  the  life  of  the  goldsmith,  when 
Bergamo  received  Petrarch  officially,  and  he  lodged 
in  the  small  house  of  Capra  instead  of  the  Municipal 
Palace,  deigning  to  repose  in  a  chamber  hung  with 
purple,  and  a  bed  embroidered  with  gold. 

Amerigo  Vespucci  must  have  imbibed  in  the  very 
atmosphere  of  Florence  and  Italy  a  perception  of 
the  value  of  education,  and  even  of  learning.  The 
proverb  had  full  weight  in  the  fifteenth  century, 


68  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

"  He  who  reads,  rules  "  (Chi  legge,  regge).  In  1398 
the  modern  club  was  substituted  by  companies  of 
philosophers,  such  as  met  in  the  convent  of  Santo 
Spirito  to  discuss  logic,  metaphysics,  and  physics 
in  a  time  when  Giannozzo  Manetti  was  noted  for 
eloquence.  Conferences  were  held  daily,  and  a 
written  paper  suspended  to  a  column  of  the  cloister 
stated  the  subject  to  be  discussed,  in  advance.  In 
1438  the  Platonic  Academy  was  founded  by  Cosimo, 
Pater  Patrice ;  the  Florentine  School  of  Harmony, 
consisting  of  fifteen  members  in  1480,  with  Antonio 
Squarcialupi,  the  organist,  and  a  certain  Cieco, 
known  as  a  musician,  a  philosopher,  and  a  Latin 
poet ;  and  the  society  of  the  Cauldron  under  the 
sculptor  Eustici  the  same  year.  When  a  return  of 
tranquillity  in  public  affairs  permitted  culture  the 
Umidi  carried  on  to  1540  a  reunion  of  studious 
young  people,  who  met  on  Sundays  and  Thursdays 
to  read  the  sonnets  of  Petrarch  and  make  classical 
Latin  translations ;  the  Florence  Academy  and  the 
Alterati  became  merged  into  the  celebrated  Academy 
della  Crusca  in  1582,  while  the  Academy  del 
Cimento  belonged  to  the  pupils  of  Galileo  in  1657, 
and  in  1698  the  Academy  of  Apatista  and  Instan- 
cabile  combined,  to  make  a  Society  Colornbaria  in 
1735. 

The  universities  of  Bologna  and  Padua  took  pre 
cedence  in  importance,  and  after  these  the  seat 
of  learning  of  Naples,  founded  by  Frederick  II. 
toward  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century.  In 


YOUTH.  69 

1391  the  university  of  Ferrara  existed,  that  of  Pavia 
was  endowed  by  Gian  Galeazzo  Visconti.  Piacenza 
studied  civil  and  canonical  rights,  and  the  perusal 
of  Dante,  Seneca,  and  other  authors,  also  Brescia, 
Siena,  Lucca,  and  Perugia,  while  the  Pope  John 
XXII.  urged  Corsica  to  open  schools  in  1331,  and 
Pope  Honorius  IV.  established  the  instruction  of 
Oriental  languages  as  early  as  1286. 

The  Italian  language  became  matured  in  elegance 
and  sweetness  in  the  time  of  Vespucci,  Greek  had 
revived  in  the  previous  century,  and  the  Provencal 
of  the  Troubadours  merged  into  a  fondness  for 
French  that  endures  in  Italy.  In  the  time  of 
Brunetto  Latini  he  wrote  his  famous  work  II  Tesoro 
in  French  to  suit  the  popular  taste,  —  "  parce  que  la 
parleure  est  plus  delitable  et  plus  commune  a  tous 
langaises."  Also,  a  manuscript  Codex  of  1275,  in 
the  Kiccardiana  collection,  of  a  history  of  Venice, 
was  translated  from  an  ancient  Latin  chronicle 
into  French  by  Maestro  Martino  da  Canale,  who 
states  in  the  introduction  :  "  Parce  que  la  lengue 
Franceise  cort  parmi  le  Monde,  et  est  la  plus  deli- 
table  a  lire  et  a  oir,  que  nulle  autre."  Apparently 
Amerigo  did  not  seek  a  wider  field  of  instruction 
than  the  sphere  of  his  uncle's  tuition.  The  chron 
icles  of  Florence  have  a  certain  quaintness.  The 
Grand  Seneschal  Niccolo  Acciajuoli,  who  built  the 
Certosa,  added  a  house  with  a  school  for  the  accommo 
dation  of  fifty  students  and  three  masters  in  1228. 
The  university  of  Florence  (studjj),  having  fallen 


70  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

into  disuse,  was  re-established  in  August,  1357,  by 
the  Eectors,  in  spite  of  the  malevolence  of  certain 
citizens ;  and  the  town  agreed  to  give  two  thousand 
gold  florins  annually  to  the  Doctors,  a  committee, 
and  a  guard  of  twenty-five  soldiers.  Charles  IV. 
confirmed  the  regulation  by  an  imperial  decree  in 
1358.  The  Florentines  were  determined  not  to  have 
the  shame  of  seeking  instruction  out  of  Tuscany. 
Still  more  curious  is  the  picture  of  the  college  of 
ancient  Pisa  closing  its  portals,  the  sciences  and 
the  Muses  silenced,  in  the  time  of  the  Plague,  and 
fleeing  to  Prato  and  Pistoja  to  pitch  the  tent  of 
transient  tuition. 

King  Lothario  had  expressed  a  wish  for  the 
general  education  of  the  people  in  817.  The  rise 
of  schools  of  secular  knowledge  resulted,  after  the 
monastic  and  those  of  medicine  ;  Monte  Cassino  and 
Bobbio  having  contributed  to  the  first,  and  Salerno, 
chiefly,  to  the  second  fulfilment.  The  Italian  univer 
sities  owed  their  origin  to  princely,  imperial,  and 
pontifical  patronage.  Amerigo  Vespucci,  adhering 
to  the  stanch  Florentine  creed  of  studying  at  home, 
does  not  seem  to  have  even  sought  famous  Bologna, 
to  associate  with  the  English,  French,  Spanish, 
Portuguese,  Bohemian,  Polish,  and  German  students 
attracted  to  the  seat  of  learning,  where  Erasmus 
and  Copernicus  came  later. 

How  rich  is  the  picture  of  the  mediaeval  College  of 
Bologna,  founded  by  Charlemagne  and  the  Countess 
Mathilda  of  Tuscany  !  In  the  thirteenth  century 


YOUTH.  71 

ten  thousand  pupils  were  gathered  within  these  pre 
cincts,  and  thirteen  thousand  in  the  fourteenth  cen 
tury.  How  pompous  the  ceremonials  of  the  election 
of  a  new  rector,  when  this  worthy  walked  in  a  proces 
sion  to  the  Cathedral,  clad  in  a  red  toga  embroidered 
with  gold,  escorted  by  the  syndic,  ecclesiastics,  pro 
fessors,  magistrates,  and  students  carrying  gilded 
fasci,  the  seal  and  statutes  of  the  university,  to 
receive  in  the  church  the  formal  dignity  of  office, 
listening  to  orations,  and  making  suitable  response 
full  of  gracious  promises  !  How  extensive  the  sys 
tem  of  mechanism  in  the  corps  of  notaries,  treas 
urers,  copyists  of  manuscripts,  and  stationers  !  How 
real  the  daily  life,  even  now,  of  madcap  youth, 
revelling  in  the  races,  games,  and  tournaments 
of  public  festivals,  the  citizens  of  Bologona  calling 
the  students  "  the  sons  of  the  people,"  the  swag 
gering  about  armed  with  dangerous  weapons,  — 
even  the  rarity  of  books,  which  must  not  be  car 
ried  out  of  the  town  without  a  stamped  certificate 
of  license ! 

The  University  of  Turin  enjoyed  unique  privi 
leges.  The  Jews  of  the  city  were  obliged  to  pay 
twenty-five  gold  scudi  to  the  scholars  on  the  fall 
of  the  first  snow,  to  be  spent  in  the  Festa  of 
St.  Catherine  and  St.  Francis.  When  comedians 
and  dancers  arrived  a  tax  of  eight  tickets  of  their 
theatre  to  each  professor  was  exacted,  while  salt- 
imbanks  and  clowns  contributed  to  these  college 
functionaries  eight  vases  of  unguents,  all  liquor 


72  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

dealers  phials  of  spirit  (acquavita),  and  the  shop 
keepers  one  pound  of  sweetmeats  (confetti),  and 
pastry  on  the  eve  of  the  Epiphany. 

Amerigo  Vespucci  was  rooted  in  unfolding  intelli 
gence  on  that  solid  rock  of  educational  foundations, 
mathematics,  by  the  pious  care  of  his  uncle.  In 
his  "  History  of  Tuscany  "  Lorenzo  Pignotti  pays  an 
especial  tribute  to  this  branch  of  knowledge.  He 
says : — 

"  In  the  midst  of  the  visions,  dreams,  and  philosophies, 
mathematics  has  a  character  of  its  own  ;  it  is  gold,  abhor 
ring  all  false  dross,  and  if  it  moves  slowly  it  is  ever  with  a 
secure  step,  —  an  advantage  which  it  owes  to  the  infalli 
bility  of  its  method.  Among  the  mathematicians  of  earlier 
date,  eminent  rank  must  be  accorded  to  Fra  Luca  Pacioli 
of  the  order  of  the  Minorites,  who  was  unequalled  in 
ability.  Tuscany  first  taught  the  algebraic  rules  by 
means  of  the  Pisan  Leonardo  Fibonacci,  who  introduced 
the  exotic  plant  among  us  obtained  by  him  from  the 
Arabs.  Fra  Lnca  cultivated  the  study  before  all  others. 
The  first  book  given  to  Europe  on  algebra  was  his  work, 
entitled  'Summary  of  Arithmetic  and  Geometry.7  It  is 
written  in  a  style  a  trifle  barbarous,  half  Latin  and  half 
Italian.  One  discerns  in  this  book  notable  progress  in 
the  science  from  the  starting-point  of  Leonardo  Fibonacci 
and  the  Arabs,  in  the  solution  of  those  equations  of  all 
the  degrees  derived  from  the  second  grade.  It  cannot  be 
positively  ascertained  whether  he  was  the  inventor  or  the 
expounder  of  this  method,  but  the  acuteness  of  mind  of 
Fra  Luca  was  evinced  by  the  resolution  of  a  problem  of 
the  fourth  grade  with  all  its  terminations." 


YOUTH.  73 

Vespucci  lived  before  Copernicus  and  Galileo  had 
given  the  result  of  their  labours  to  the  world,  yet 
astronomy,  supported  by  mathematics,  and  allied  to 
her  wizard  sister  astrology,  had  already  illustrious 
exponents  in  Tuscany  and  Italy.  Is  it  not  probable 
that  he  was  familiar  with  the  observations  on 
a  new  comet  made  by  the  Bishop  of  Fiesole,  Gugli- 
elmo  Becchio,  and  dedicated  to  Piero  di  Cosiino 
de'  Medici  in  1456  ?  He  grew  to  manhood  in  unob 
trusive  guise,  unless  all  record  of  his  talents  is 
lost.  Had  he  been  other  than  a  conventional  type 
of  youth  mention  of  him  must  have  been  made  in 
the  annals  of  the  day,  which  were  ever  ready  to 
catch  some  straw  of  personal  anecdote  and  raillery. 
Had  he  been  conspicuous  for  grace,  agility,  prowess 
of  any  sort,  even  the  turbulence  and  disobedience 
which  marked  the  adolescence  of,  St.  Andrea  Corsini 
in  the  previous  century,  whose  mother  dreamed  he 
was  a  wolf  changed  to  a  lamb,  some  notice  must 
have  been  taken  of  the  fact  by  keen  and  brilliant 
contemporaries.  Had  his  soul  burst  into  songs 
of  love,  emulative  of  Cavalcanti,  Pellegrino,  and  An 
tonio  Agli,  Bartolomeo  and  Filippo  Valori,  Bernardo 
Nuzzi,  Poggio  or  Rucellai,  composed  a  history  of 
the  times  in  rhyme,  as  Buccio  Eenaldi  wrote  of  his 
native  Aquila,  or  piped  of  agriculture  like  Paganino 
Bonafede  of  Bologna,  in  1360,  modesty  could  not 
have  destroyed  all  lines.  Fazio  degli  Uberti  wrote 
a  treatise  on  geography  in  verse ;  Domenico  di 
Silvestro  equally  on  all  the  isles  of  the  sea ;  the 


74  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

Cardinal  Luca  Manzuoli,  a  Florentine,  translated 
Lucan  as  a  poem;  Jacopo  Gradenigo,  a  Venetian, 
who  died  in  1420,  rendered  the  four  Evangelists 
into  forty-four  capitals;  while  Federigo  Frezzi  da 
Foligno  imitated  Dante  in  the  four  reigns  of  Love, 
Satan,  the  Vices,  and  the  Virtues,  and  Riccobaldo 
of  Ferrara  compiled  a  universal  history  under  the 
title  of  II  Pomario  (the  orchard),  as  gathering  the 
suave  fruit  of  all  ages.  We  are  not  informed  that 
Amerigo  Vespucci  wrote  an  elegiac  poem  on  the 
inconstancy  of  Fortune,  and  the  consolations  of  phil 
osophy,  as  did  Arrigo  da  Settimello,  although  the 
voyager  might  reasonably  have  done  so  in  the  latter 
portion  of  his  life.  The  previous  century  had  ele 
vated  the  study  of  Dante,  and  Petrarch,  and  of 
Italian  poetry,  and  Amerigo  lived  in  the  midst  of 
the  prevailing  excitement  of  contest  between  the 
two  schools  of  Platonic  and  Aristotelian  philoso 
phies.  The  statement  that  he  made  several  voyages 
to  the  Levant,  and  even  to  England  before  a  final 
departure  for  Spain,  is  discredited,  as  well  as  the 
poem,  given  by  Bandini,  composed  by  the  Florentine 
Girolamo  Bartolommei  in  which  Amerigo  recounts 
his  travels  to  the  Emperor  of  Ethiopia. 

Youth,  in  the  doublet  and  the  parti-coloured  hose, 
must  have  shared  the  life  of  the  Florence  of  that 
period,  walking  arm  in  arm  with  gay  comrades,  a 
mandoline  or  a  guitar  slung  over  one  shoulder,  fre 
quenting  that  open-air  drawing-room  of  fashion,  the 
square  of  the  Duomo,  in  the  coolness  of  evening,  and 


YOUTH.  75 

supping  at  such  taverns  as  that  of  Michele  del  Bello 
in  the  Via  di  Pilastri,  renowned  for  highly  seasoned 
ragouts,  as  those  of  Frascati  and  Pievano  for  Bologna 
sausage,  kid,  ribbon  vermicelli  cooked  in  broth,  force 
meat  balls,  and  fish,  and  Neghittosa,  famous  for  ex 
quisite  jellies,  tarts,  and  blanc-mange.  Coffee  and 
chocolate  were  not  introduced  into  use  at  Florence 
before  1668,  and  grave  Messer  Anastasio  Vespucci 
must  have  sought  the  apothecary-shop  for  the  enjoy 
ment  of  masculine  society,  the  spezieria  of  the  Giglio, 
the  Eed  Cross,  or  the  Diamond,  instead  of  the  modern 
club  or  cafe*.  On  Christmas  eve  youth  went  about 
the  streets  with  lanterns,  torches,  and  trumpets 
when  the  churches  of  San  Lorenzo  and  of  the  An- 
nunziata  were  thronged  with  people  gathered  to 
.share  in  the  Gloria,  and  the  lights  shone  on  the 
rich  attire  and  gems  of  the  company.  Madonna 
Elisabetta  no  doubt  wore  superb  yellow  stuffs,  and 
the  zimarra  of  green,  and  other  hues,  while  the 
maidens  about  her  sighed  for  strings  of  pearls,  and 
silken  stuffs,  and  mankind  showed  a  tendency  to 
attach  frivolous  knots  of  ribbons  to  sober  attire ; 
for  the  day  of  Lorenzo  de'  Medici  was  dawning. 
Youth  also  had  the  realm  of  the  theatre  opening 
before  his  wondering  eyes,  all  dramatic  composition 
having  been  in  Latin  until  the  beginning  of  the 
fifteenth  century.  Instead  of  quaint  monastic  dia 
logues  between  the  Soul  and  the  Creator,  between 
the  Violet  and  the  Kose,  the  Fly  and  the  Ant,  or 
the  singers  and  the  tumblers  of  the  Piazza,  he  was 


76  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

diverted  by  La  Floriana,  a  comedy,  or  farce,  in  terza 
rima,  by  an  unknown  author,  with  such  accessories 
of  scenery  as  Duke  Ercole  d'Este  employed  in  1486, 
in  the  splendid  spectacles  organized  in  the  cortile 
of  his  palace  at  Ferrara,  when  the  actors  had  a 
wooden  tribunal  with  five  houses,  and  a  window. 
Apparently  no  thread  of  romance  was  interwoven  in 
his  life,  bred  of  the  flashing  glance  of  coquetry  at  a 
casement,  or  the  languishing  grace  of  womanhood, 
crowned  with  the  wreaths  of  the  goldsmith,  at  the 
balls  given  by  the  Guild  of  Silk  in  the  Mercato 
Nuova.  Amerigo's  Florentine  sense  of  humour  must 
have  relished  the  Attic  salt  of  the  barber  Domenico 
di  Nanni,  called  Burchiello,  who  was  born  in  the 
Via  di  Calimala  in  1380,  and  died  at  Home  in  1448. 
The  barber  made  the  town  merry  for  many  years 
with  his  proverbs,  jests,  repartees,  and  Tuscan  puns. 
The  godfather  of  a  new  continent  cannot  have  failed 
to  smile  at  the  latest  witticism  of  the  priest  Arlotto 
Mainardi,  vicar  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  the  Pilgrim, 
in  the  Via  San  Gallo,  whose  epitaph  in  the  pave 
ment  was  long  read  with  a  shuddering  interest: 
"This  sepulchre  the  Vicar  Arlotto  had  made  for 
any  one  who  wishes  to  enter."  He  died  in  1484. 

According  to  the  brief  statement  of  Bandini,  when 
Amerigo  Vespucci  was  twenty-five  years  of  age  a 
fatal  malady  smote  the  cities  of  Italy,  threatening 
the  lives  of  the  Florentines,  and  Ser  Anastasio 
therefore  prudently  removed  his  family  to  a  villa 
and  property  at  Trebbio  in  Mugello  for  the  preser- 


YOUTH.  77 

vation  of  health,  keeping  his  household  in  the 
fresh  air  of  the  country  until  all  danger  was  over. 
Amerigo  pursued  his  studies  of  history,  languages, 
mathematics,  metaphysics,  and  the  moral  sciences, 
especially  the  branches  of  astronomy,  cosmography, 
and  geometry.  Surely  the  lad  with  the  bright  cap 
sang  and  laughed  at  times,  in  his  breast  the  melo 
dies  of  Leopardi's  "  Hymn  to  the  Springtime,"  and  on 
his  lips  some  joyous  refrain  snatched  from  the  store 
adapted  by  Lorenzo  de'  Medici  in  his  carnival  ditties. 
"  How  beautiful  is  youth !  "  Bandini  writes  thus : 

"In  that  time  commerce  acquired  great  activity,  and 
our  Florentines  were  engaged  in  trade  with  all  parts  of  the 
world  with  much  success,  not  only  to  individuals,  but  to 
the  State,  as  is  revealed  by  the  archives  of  the  republic ; 
and  it  may  be  affirmed,  with  every  reason  for  the  boast, 
that  precedence  of  other  nations  had  been  gained,  bringing 
large  sums  of  gold  to  our  city,  so  that  Florence  held  her 
own  in  competition  with  different  portions  of  Italy  in  the 
fabrication  of  magnificent  and  costly  stuffs.  The  name  of 
Florence  became  diffused  over  the  world ;  for  which  reason 
the  house  of  Vespucci  selected  one  member  to  represent 
their  interests  abroad.  With  this  aim  in  view  Girolamo, 
the  eldest  son,  had  undertaken  several  voyages  to  the 
Levant  without  success ;  therefore  Ser  Anastasio  chose 
Amerigo,  by  reason  of  his  studies  in  geography,  the  sci 
ences,  and  navigation,  to  replace  him." 

In  the  year  1490  Amerigo  left  his  native  land 
for  Spain,  accompanied  by  several  young  Florentines, 


78  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

and  his  nephew,  Giovanni  Vespucci,  who  became  a 
brave  pilot,  as  is  mentioned  in  the  history  of  the 
West  Indies  by  Peter  Martyr. 

One  likes  to  think  of  him  as  preparing  to  depart 
in  the  month  of  March,  at  the  rising  of  the  Pleiades, 
and  the  moment  when  vegetation  revives,  and  the 
classic  sea  was  deemed  again  navigable  by  timid 
mariners. 


CHAPTEE  VI. 

CHOOSING   A    CAREER. 

THE  young  Florentine  of  to-day,  of  the  social 
class  of  Amerigo  Vespucci,  puts  on  his  ulster,  straps 
a  small  bag  over  one  shoulder,  looks  to  the  contents 
of  his  cigar-case,  and  vaults  into  a  rapid  train  for 
Paris,  London,  Berlin,  or  St.  Petersburg.  He  travels 
at  night  by  preference  (in  order  not  to  see  any  novel 
object,  possibly),  and,  arrived  at  his  destination, 
makes  his  toilet,  dines,  and  goes  to  the  theatre. 
This  type  of  the  jeunesse  doree  does  not  deign  to 
mention  a  long  journey,  if  escape  from  a  railway 
accident  has  left  him  with  whole  members.  At 
home  he  occasionally  joins  in  some  historical  mas 
querade  in  emulation  of  German  and  Austrian  pa 
geantry,  when  a  Eidolfe  carries  the  standard  of  the 
Guild  of  Wool,  a  Frescobaldi  the  Ensign  of  Silk,  a 
Martelli  that  of  the  Cuirassiers,  and  a  Strozzi  leads 
a  band  of  the  Lancers  of  the  Commune. 

The  Florentine  of  the  Middle  Ages  is  a  far  more 
interesting  object  of  contemplation,  as,  clad  in  a 
leather  jerkin  and  a  furred  mantle,  armed  with  the 
sword  and  spurs  of  a  cavalier,  he  rode  forth  out  of 


80  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

the  gate  of  the  town  on  a  mission  of  importance  to 
the  commonwealth,  or  in  quest  of  private  adventure 
of  fortune. 

Did  Amerigo  Vespucci  thus  depart  from  his 
native  Flower  City  ?  Is  it  not  more  probable  that 
he  gained  the  Mediterranean  shore  on  horseback,  by 
a  land  route,  either  at  Leghorn,  Genoa,  Savona,  or 
even  Marseilles,  to  take  ship  for  Spain,  than  that  he 
crept  down  the  Arno  tide  to  Pisa  by  boat  ?  Did  he 
ever  revisit  the  inland  city  ?  All  authorities  seem 
to  agree  as  to  the  circumstance  of  a  personal 
acquaintance  with  Paolo  Toscanelli,  who  "  first 
aroused  in  his  imagination  a  question  of  the  exis 
tence  of  a  new  world."  The  fact  has  a  deeper  sig 
nificance  than  chance  personal  intercourse  of  the 
shop  and  the  street,  with  Burchiello's  fun,  the  witty 
barber,  and  the  whimsical  priest  Arlotto,  whose 
latest  jest  flew  over  the  town.  Paolo  Toscanelli, 
student  of  astromony,  medicine,  physics,  Latin,  and 
Greek,  was  born  in  Florence  in  1397.  He  con- 
tructed  the  Gnomon  in  the  Cathedral,  it  is  supposed, 
to  do  honour  to  his  master  Brunellesco,  who  had 
instructed  him  in  mathematics,  and  on  the  plan  of 
the  neglected  sun-dial  of  the  Baptistery.  The 
height  of  Brunellesco's  cupola  rendered  the  obser 
vation  of  the  solar  ray  that  falls  on  the  pavement  in 
the  summer  solstice  one  of  great  delicacy  and  accu 
racy  ;  and  the  length  of  time  it  remained  visible 
aided  in  the  complete  perfection  of  the  instrument 
of  measurement.  The  lofty  temple  became  for  Tos- 


CHOOSING    A    CAREER.  81 

canelli  an  oracle  which  he  frequently  consulted, 
and  by  means  of  which  he  is  reputed  to  have  cor 
rected  the  Alphonsine  Tablets.  He  formed  a  pro 
ject  of  shortening  the  route  to  China  by  steering 
westward,  and  corresponded  with  Columbus  on  the 
subject  about  the  year  1474.  One  of  the  most 
eloquent  figures  of  all  time  among  the  sons  of  this 
wonderful  inland  city  is  Toscanelli,  poring  over  his 
charts  and  astronomical  instruments  in  some  dark 
nook,  remaining  quietly  at  home,  and  indicating  to 
the  bold  and  restless  spirit  of  other  men  the  great 
highways  of  future  enterprise  over  the  seas  for 
unborn  generations.  Is  not  the  very  memory  of 
such  a  man  like  the  beam  of  summer  sunshine 
slanting  down  through  the  dome  of  the  Church  of 
the  Lily  on  the  Gnomon  of  the  pavement  as  in  San 
Petronia  at  Bologna,  Santa  Maria  degli  Angeli  at 
Home,  and  St.  Sulpice  of  Paris  ?  Tuscan  authors  like 
to  dwell  on  the  retrospection  of  his  long  career  of 
eighty  years,  the  modest  retirement  of  philosophical 
ease,  rather  than  any  attempt  to  shine  by  means  of 
a  vast  erudition,  marking  his  course,  yet  his  fame 
for  astronomical  and  geographical  knowledge  mak 
ing  those  in  remote  lands  desirous  to  consult  him. 
The  merit  of  having  aided  in  the  discovery  of  the 
new  world  by  means  of  a  direct  influence  on  the 
intelligence  of  Columbus  is  universally  accorded  to 
him.  The  King  of  Portugal  is  believed  to  have  in 
terrogated  Toscanelli  before  Columbus,  through  Fer 
dinand  Martinez,  Canon  of  Lisbon,  as  to  the  best 

6 


82  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

method  of  navigating  westward ;  Portugal  having 
already  evinced  remarkable  zeal  in  exploring  the 
coast  of  Africa.  Such  was  the  fellow-citizen  with 
whom  our  silent  young  Amerigo  Vespucci  must 
have  held  some  intercourse.  A  French  author 
affirms  that  the  principal  currents  of  fresh  impulses 
of  human  thought  emanated  from  the  City  of 
Flowers  and  Tuscany. 

What  were  the  meditations  of  Amerigo  in  that 
Villa  of  Trebbio  in  Mugello,  whither  his  family  had 
withdrawn  from  the  plague-threatened  town,  —  the 
reticent,  conventional  young  man,  conspicuous  for 
no  merit  or  defect  in  the  eyes  of  a  community  quick 
to  admire  or  to  ridicule  ?  One  seeks  in  vain  ade 
quate  store  of  letters,  or  diary,  which  might  reveal 
his  tastes  and  pursuits  in  a  daily  routine,  after  the 
manner  of  Machiavelli  writing  to  his  friend  Vettori, 
a  partisan  of  the  Medici,  from  his  villa  at  San  Cas- 
ciano  in  the  parish  of  San  Andrea :  — 

"  I  live  on  my  property,"  gossips  the  great  roan,  who 
died  in  1527.  "  I  snare  thrushes  with  my  own  hand.  I 
rise  before  day.  I  prepare  the  bird  lime,  and  I  go  out 
carrying  on  my  back  a  quantity  of  cages,  like  Geta  when 
he  returned  to  port  with  the  books  of  Amphitryon.  Each 
day  I  take  from  two  to  seven  thrushes.  I  have  hunted 
thus  during  the  month  of  September.  Here  is  my  actual 
life :  Rising  before  the  sun,  I  go  to  my  woods,  which  I 
order  cut  down.  I  spend  a  couple  of  hours  watching  the 
woodcutters,  who  quarrel  with  each  other,  or  the  neigh 
bours.  Later,  on  coming  out  of  the  wood  I  go  to  the  foun- 


Portrait  of  Macbiavelli. 


CHOOSING   A   CAREER.  83 

tain,  and  the  places  where  my  nets  are  spread  to  entrap 
the  birds,  carrying  a  book  under  my  arm,  —  now  Dante, 
now  Petrarch,  now  another  poet  of  a  class  less  elevated, 
like  Ovid  or  Tibullns.  From  thence  I  go  on  the  road 
to  the  inn ;  I  talk  with  the  passers-by,  and  ask  news  of 
them.  I  learn  many  things,  and  I  observe  all  the  dif 
ferent  tastes  and  fantasies  of  mankind.  Soon  arrives 
the  hour  of  dinner ;  I  eat  in  company  with  my  servants, 
and  it  is  my  slender  patrimony  that  furnishes  the  table. 
After  dinner  I  return  to  the  inn,  where  I  usually  'find  the 
innkeeper,  the  butcher,  and  the  miller.  I  play  all  the 
rest  of  the  day  at  la  erica  "  (a  game  of  cards).  "  Often, 
a  propos  of  a  soldo  lost  or  gained,  there  arise  contests, 
quarrels,  and  abuse,  so  that  we  may  be  heard  wrangling 
as  far  as  San  Casciano.  Yet  it  is  thus  that  I  divert 
myself,  and  prevent  my  brain  from  growing  dull.  Yes,  I 
abandon  myself  to  the  malice  of  Fortune,  hoping  that  after 
spurning  me  beneath  her  feet,  she  may  finish  by  having  a 
little  shame." 

Oh  that  Amerigo  Vespucci  had  been  as  discursive 
as  Machiavelli !  But  Amerigo  Vespucci  was  reserved, 
perhaps  haughty,  and  as  far  as  we  are  aware  kept 
even  his  thoughts  to  himself. 

Ser  Anastasio  had  decided  to  send  forth  his  third 
son  in  quest  of  fortune,  perhaps  as  the  men  of  Jut 
land  drove  out  their  offspring  to  seek  a  home  else 
where  every  five  years,  although  not  with  the  same 
severity  as  the  parents  of  the  old  Celtic  sagas,  who 
had  their  gold  and  silver  burned  with  them  to 
force  the  children  to  depart  by  sea.  The  resolution 


84  AMERICA/S   GODFATHER. 

formed  by  the  house  of  Vespucci  had  the  more  civi 
lised  phase  of  the  modern  Dutch  merchants  of 
Amsterdam  and  Rotterdam,  in  sending  a  young  kins 
man  to  the  Spice  Islands,  or  China,  in  the  interests 
of  the  firm.  Amerigo  undoubtedly  had  the  Floren 
tine  spirit  for  novelty  and  travel  of  the  time.  Was 
he  moved  to  agreeable  speculations  of  getting  gain, 
solely,  by  journeying  to  Spain,  in  the  shrewd  spirit 
of  the  Florentine  banker,  broker,  and  weaver,  with 
whom  the  golden  florin  had  acquired  a  wonderful 
value  since  the  ledgers  of  the  fourteenth  century 
had  been  opened  ?  The  reaping  of  fortune  had  an 
especial  charm  in  trading  in  pearls  of  the  East, 
dealing  in  mastic  and  perfumes,  or  discovering  a 
purple  lichen,  called  erba  orcella,  on  the  rocks,  capa 
ble  of  yielding  a  rich  dye,  as  did  the  cloth  merchant 
Rucellai  in  the  Levant.  Did  the  old  tales  appeal  to 
his  imagination,  instead,  of  how  Hercules  of  Tyre 
once  went  by  all  seas  seeking  the  precious  products 
of  each  land,  in  trade,  —  the  fine  garnets  of  the  coasts 
of  Gaul,  the  coral  of  the  Isles  of  Hyeres,  and  the 
rich  metals  of  the  Alps,  Cevennes,  and  the  Pyrenees  ? 
Was  he  eager  to  haunt  the  great  fairs  of  Troyes  in 
Champagne,  Aries,  and  Frejus,  where  the  Florentine 
and  Genoese  silk  stuffs  were  displayed  beside  the 
furs  and  leather  of  the  North,  and  the  gems  of  the 
Orient? 

The  stars  shine  with  a  crystalline  brilliancy  in 
the  firmament  above  Tuscany,  and  while  his  naked 
eye,  or  the  few  primitive  instruments  adopted  then 


CHOOSING   A    CAREER.  85 

may  have  disclosed  comparatively  few  of  the  one 
hundred  and  sixty  million  stellar  worlds  known  to 
science  to-day,  with  the  reasonable  prospect  of  other 
millions  becoming  visible  when  more  powerful 
glasses  are  invented,  his  thoughts  may  have  plunged 
into  spaces  far  beyond  the  encircling  Apennines  of 
his  birthplace,  some  whispered  note  of  the  myste 
ries  of  an  unfathomed  universe  awakened  in  his 
brain,  from  the  arguments  of  Toscanelli,  the  weird 
sophistries  of  the  Eastern  magicians,  the  very  rever 
ies  of  philosophy.  Did  the  spiritual  significance  of 
the  sea,  as  meeting  the  need  of  pent-up,  restless  man, 
appeal  to  the  soul  of  Amerigo  Vespucci  ?  The 
energy  and  enterprise  of  the  Florentine  in  travelling 
abroad  during  the  Middle  Ages  were  remarkable 
characteristics.  The  most  picturesque  example, 
familiar  to  Vespucci,  was  Buonaccorso  Pitti,  whose 
descriptions  of  his  journeys  and  adventures  possess 
such  freshness  and  naivete*,  combined  with  exceeding 
worldly  wisdom,  that  the  task  of  selecting  and  cur 
tailing  paragraphs  from  the  pages  of  this  young 
gentleman's  diary  is  difficult,  one  is  so  tempted  to 
give  it  in  full.  In  the  country  retreat  of  the  Mugello 
district  Amerigo  may  well  have  studied  the  writings 
of  Pitti  as  a  sort  of  mediaeval  guide-book,  while  pre 
paring  to  quit  the  paternal  roof. 

Buonaccorso  Pitti,  the  father  of  Luca  Pitti,  the 
rich  rival  of  the  Medici,  kept  a  diary,  or  chronicle, 
which  is  a  picture  of  the  times.  He  was  born  in 
1354,  and  died  in  1430.  His  journal  comprises  a 


86  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

period  between  1374  and  1430.  He  must  have 
furnished  a  golden  key  to  the  imagination  of 
Vespucci.  In  addition  to  the  family  feuds,  detailed 
with  a  mixture  of  frankness,  piety,  and  the  guile  of 
the  old  race,  he  writes :  — 

"In  1375,  being  young,  and  not  having  yet  chosen  a 
career,  and  wishing  to  seek  fortune  in  the  world,  I 
associated  myself  with  Matteo  dello  Scielto  Tinghi,  a 
merchant,  and  an  inveterate  gambler.  We  went  success 
ively  to  Genoa,  Nice,  and  Avignon,  where  we  arrived 
during  the  festivals  of  Christmas.  We  were  arrested  and 
conducted  to  the  prisons  of  the  Pope's  marshal,  where  we 
were  detained  for  eight  days,  as  spies  of  the  Commune  of 
Florence.  In  the  interrogation  to  which  we  were  sub 
jected,  my  companion  Matteo  was  shown  a  letter  of  his 
brother's  stating  that  Bologna  was  in  rebellion  against  the 
Pope,  and  aiding  Florence.  After  an  examination  of  our 
affairs,  and  the  replies  we  made,  it  remained  clear  that  we 
were  wholly  innocent.  However,  a  bail  of  three  thousand 
florins  was  exacted,  and  the  assurance  that  we  would  not 
quit  Avignon  without  asking  permission  of  the  marshal. 
Matteo  found  vouchers  for  us,  but  he  judged,  when  we 
were  liberated  from  prison,  because  of  the  war  which  had 
burst  out  between  the  Holy  See  and  Florence,  that  it 
would  be  wise  to  depart  to  avoid  new  dangers.  We 
returned  to  Florence,  where  we  received  intelligence  from 
Avignon  that  Gregory  XL  had  arrested  all  Florentines,  and 
seized  their  property." 

Still  more  curious  is  the  next  speculation  under 
taken  by  these  dauntless  young  adventurers :  — 


CHOOSING    A    CAREER.  87 

"  In  1376  Matteo,  having  resolved  to  visit  Prussia, 
invited  me  to  share  the  journey,  arid  to  await  him  at 
Padua  and  Venice.  He  rejoined  me  in  the  latter  city, 
where  he  bought  one  thousand  ducats'  worth  of  saffron. 
We  went  by  sea  to  Signa  in  Croatia,  and  then  by  land 
to  Buda  in  Sclavonia,  where  .  he  sold  the  saffron  for  a 
profit  of  one  thousand  ducats.  Falling  ill  at  Buda,  I  was 
left  by  Matteo  with  Michel  Marucci,  to  whom  he  gave 
twelve  ducats  to  cure  and  send  me  back  to  Florence, 
promising  to  pay  any  surplus  of  expenses  on  his  return. 
He  departed ;  for  myself  I  became  seriously  ill,  owing  to 
a  lack  of  all  care.  I  had  for  a  bed  a  miserable  mattress 
in  a  small  chamber,  where  I  received  neither  the  aid  of 
a  doctor  nor  of  a  woman.  There  was  in  the  house  only 
a  valet.  I  remained  thus  between  life  and  death  for  six 
weeks.  Finally  there  came,  on  the  night  of  Saint  Martin, 
a  troop  of  Germans,  accompanied  by  players  on  the  horn, 
to  dance  in  a  room  adjoining  the  hole  where  my  pallet 
was  spread.  One  of  these,  having  poked  in  his  head 
where  I  lay,  discovered  me.  Others  followed  him,  set 
me  on  my  feet,  wrapped  me  in  my  pelisse,  and  led  me 
to  the  dancing-hall,  saying  :  '  Either  you  will  be  cured 
or  killed,  but,  at  least,  you  can  suffer  no  more.'  And  in 
fact,  despite  my  tears  and  prayers,  they  did  not  leave  me 
in  peace  until  I  fell  on  the  floor  from  fatigue.  Then  they 
carried  me  back  to  my  mattress,  threw  over  me  their 
pelisses,  and  returned  to  their  room,  where  they  danced 
and  drank  all  night.  Under  the  pile  of  garments  I  first 
shivered,  then  perspired  in  abundance.  In  the  morning 
the  Germans  re-entered  my  chamber,  took  their  pelisses, 
restored  mine,  and  made  me  drink  with  them,  which  I 
did  willingly.  When  they  had  departed  I  rested  for  an 
hour  or  two,  and  then  I  went  out  to  seek  Guido  Baldi,  a 


88  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

Florentine,  who  was  the  director  of  the  mint  of  the  king 
of  Buda.  He  welcomed  me  amicably,  and  invited  me  to 
dine,  after  which  we  hegan  to  play.  With  fifty-five  Venetian 
soldini  which  remained  to  me,  I  gained  four  gold  florins. 
There  were  not  slow  to  arrive  Jews  and  Germans,  who 
were  in  the  habit  of  playing  with  Baldi.  I  made  a  party 
with  them,  and  gained  twenty  florins,  which  I  took  home 
with  me.  I  returned  to  Baldi  the  next  day,  and  this  time 
I  won  forty  gold  florins.  In  fact,  in  the  space  of  fifteen 
days  with  my  fifty-five  little  Venetian  pennies  I  won 
twelve  hundred  gold  florins.  Marucci,  with  whom  I  had 
fallen  sick,  advised  me  to  tempt  fortune  no  more,  but  to 
buy  horses,  and  to  return  to  Florence,  promising  to 
accompany  me  as  far  as  Signa.  I  followed  his  counsel. 
Having  purchased  six  horses,  and  procured  a  little  page 
and  four  valets,  we  left  for  Signa,  where  Marucci  found 
me  five  more  horses.  I  hired  a  vessel  of  Marseilles,  and, 
after  a  painful  voyage  of  twenty-four  days,  I  arrived  at 
Venice,  where  I  lost  one  of  my  best  horses.  In  the 
mountains  near  Bologna,  I  lost  two  more.  I  arrived  at 
Pontremoli  with  the  eight  that  remained  to  me.  At  the 
end  of  six  months  of  travelling,  in  counting  the  losses  and 
the  gains,  over  the  expenses  of  my  tour  there  remained  to 
me,  on  entering  Florence,  only  two  horses,  and  about  one 
hundred  gold  florins." 

Tracing  the  thread  of  business  transaction  in  the 
career  of  this  active  and  wonderful  young  gentle 
man,  Pitti,  in  1380,  went  to  Lucca  and  Genoa,  where 
in  a  month  he  made  fifteen  hundred  florins.  He 
visited  Verona,  the  Romagna,  and  Arezzo,  and  then 
borrowed  fifty  ducats  of  some  obliging  compatriot, 
and  went  to  Avignon  and  Paris.  In  1340  he  met  a 


CHOOSING   A   CAREER.  89 

Corsini  and  a  Degli  Spini  in  Paris,  where  these  Flor 
entines  came  as  ambassadors.  He  states :  "  I  left 
for  England.  There  I  consigned  to  Mariotti  Fer- 
rantini  and  his  partner  the  sum  of  two  thousand 
five  hundred  gold  francs  to  buy  wools,  which  he  was 
to  deliver  to  me  at  Florence." 

Note  Amerigo  Vespucci  musing  over  this  lively 
chronicle  before  choosing  a  career,  and  going  forth 
to  Spain,  as  he  probably  did,  imbued  by  a  common 
sentiment  of  curiosity  in  the  Florence  public.  Note 
the  knowledge  of  the  world,  of  men,  and  things, 
gained  by  personal  observation  and  experience,  of 
the  Florentine  of  that  date,  before  America  was  dis 
covered.  The  modern  youth  may  seek  Monte  Carlo 
to  stake  his  gold  on  the  gaming-table,  or  enter  the 
manifold  phases  of  speculation.  Both  were  known 
to  Pitti. 

"  In  1381  Bernardo  Cino  advised  me  to  go  to  Brussels, 
where  the  Duke  of  Brabant  was  giving  fetes  and  tourna 
ments,  and  play.  I  went.  In  a  few  days  I  lost  more  than 
two  thousand  gold  francs,  which  I  had  brought  from  Paris ; 
for  in  my  association  with  Cino  he  furnished  the  money, 
and  I  only  my  stupid  head,  which  risked  all  on  two  dice. 
The  last  night,  having  lost  five  hundred  francs  borrowed 
of  the  Duke,  and  possessing  only  a  similar  sum  at  home,  I 
left  the  gaming-table  to  follow  him  and  his  gentlemen  into 
a  room  where  they  were  dancing.  As  I  was  looking  at  a 
very  "beautiful  young  girl  of  fourteen,  the  daughter  of  a 
high  Barori,  with  extreme  pleasure,  she  approached  me, 
saying :  '  Lombard,  come  and  dance.  Do  not  be  down 
hearted  if  you  have  been  losing.  God  will  aid  you.'  " 


90  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

After  the  dance  the  Duke  of  Brabant  proposed  to 
cancel  the  debt  of  honour,  or  to  defer  payment.  Here 
is  an  instance  of  speculation  of  the  boldest  sort :  — 

"In  February,  1382,  Bernardo  Cino  confided  to  his 
nephew  two  hundred  gold  pieces,  as  well  as  pearls  and 
jewels  to  the  value  of  three  thousand  francs,  desiring  that 
we  should  go  to  Holland  to  sell  them,  or  to  play  with  the 
Duke  Albert  of  Bavaria.  We  went  to  the  Hague,  where 
we  found  the  Duke,  but  he  would  neither  buy  nor  gamble 
for  the  jewels.  We  defrayed  the  expenses  of  our  journey 
out  of  the  two  hundred  francs,  and  returning  to  Paris  in 
April  we  gave  back  to  Bernardo  Cino  his  pearls  and 
gems." 

Here,  again,  is  an  instance  of  the  Florentine  spirit 
of  the  banker  :  — 

"  In  1385  I  loaned  to  the  Count  of  Savoy  for  play  five 
hundred  francs.  I  also  rendered  him  similar  service  at 
Bruges,  Arras,  and  Paris,  at  the  moment  of  his  departure 
from  the  city.  In  short,  I  had  advanced  to  him,  in  all, 
thirty-five  thousand  gold  francs.  I  sent  some  one  to 
Savoy  to  ascertain  what  precautions  to  take  to  secure 
my  debt.  The  count  assigned  a  time  of  payment,  and  I 
went  to  receive  it,  but  he  demanded  a  new  delay  of  six 
months." 

Pitti  continues :  — 

"  I  passed  the  winter  (1389)  at  Paris,  where  I  won  nearly 
two  thousand  francs  in  gold  at  play.  I  bought  a  house 
which  cost  me  six  hundred  francs.  Then  the  following 
Lent  I  went  to  Holland  and  Zealand  to  visit  Duke  Albert 


CHOOSING   A   CAREER.  91 

and  his  lords,  of  whom  I  won  fifteen  hundred  gold  coin. 
Keturning  to  Paris  in  October,  I  departed  to  join  the  King 
of  France,  who  was  going  to  visit  the  Pope  Clement  VI. 
at  Avignon.  On  the  march  I  met  Porro,  the  commis 
sioner  of  the  Duke  of  Milan,  hastening  after  the  mon 
arch,  like  myself.  I  won  tweh^  hundred  francs  of  Porro. 
Finally  we  reached  the  king,  and  afterwards  arrived  at 
Toulouse,  where  they  were  celebrating  Christmas." 

Was  Amerigo  Vespucci  ever  thrilled  with  the 
ardour  of  chivalrous  deeds  in  early  youth  ?  Behold 
Pitti !  —  ready  to  enlighten  his  fellow-citizen  as 
sharing  in  stirring  scenes  that  read  like  the  pages 
of  Sir  Walter  Scott.  Even  more  does  Pitti  resemble 
the  knight  of  a  chess-board  drawn  up  in  battle 
array. 

"In  November,  1382,  I  was  present  at  an  engagement 
near  Ypres  in  Flanders,  where  Charles  VI.,  king  of  France, 
fought  the  Flemish  in  the  battle  of  Rosebecq,  according 
to  French  historians.  The  latter  numbered  forty  thou 
sand,  and  we  on  the  side  of  the  king  were  only  ten 
thousand.  The  contest  began  a  little  before  dawn.  The 
fog  was  so  dense  that  one  could  scarcely  see  the  light. 
As  we  were  in  three  divisions  the  king  had  raised  a 
banner  (called  an  oriflamme  by  the  French),  which  they 
said  was  given  to  them  by  a  miracle  in  ancient  times,  and 
as  soon  as  it  was  waved  the  fog  melted  away,  and  the 
two  armies  became  visible  to  each  other.  It  was  the  Con 
stable  of  France  (Olivier  de  Clisson)  who  began  the 
battle,  at  the  head  of  the  first  battalion,  throwing  himself 
on  the  Flemish,  who  were  formed  in  one  corps.  The 


92  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

engagement  lasted  for  two  hours.  The  Flemish  were  de 
feated,  having  lost  twenty-five  thousand  killed.  After 
this  victory  the  French  pushed  on  to  Courtray,  a  town  of 
about  the  importance  of  Prato,  which  they  took,  and 
burned  to  avenge  a  former  defeat.  Then  the  king 

returned  to  Paris  with  his  array." 

* 

In  1383  Pitti  gives  the  following  description :  — 

"This  year  the  English  came  over  to  France  between 
Flanders  and  Picardy,  to  the  number  of  ten  thousand 
combatants,  both  archers  and  men-at-arms.  The  king  of 
France,  Charles  VI.,  summoned  his  barons,  cavaliers,  and 
grooms  of  the  kingdom,  and  in  August  entered  on  the 
campaign  with  two  hundred  thousand  horse,  among  which 
were  counted  ten  thousand  cavaliers  of  the  Golden  Spur. 
Curious  to  witness  these  great  events,  I  agreed  with  a 
Sienese,  and  a  Lucchese,  friends  of  mine,  to  enrol  our 
selves  under  the  command  of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  and 
we  equipped  thirty-six  cavaliers  at  our  own  expense. 
The  Duke  was  at  the  head  of  twenty  thousand  men.  The 
army  arrived  near  Mons,  where  a  portion  of  the  English 
were  intrenched.  The  king  of  France  had  destroyed 
everything  surrounding  the  city  to  further  the  battle  on 
the  following  day,  but  during  the  night,  as  the  English 
wished  to  quit  the  town,  and  the  inhabitants  opposed 
their  flight,  many  skirmishes  and  murders  took  place.  A 
little  before  daybreak  all  of  the  English  escaped  from 
Mons.  As  day  broke  we  approached  the  gates,  and  hav 
ing  broken  them  down,  we  entered  the  city  without 
striking  a  blow,  which  we  found  strewn  with  dead  bodies, 
and  on  fire  on  all  sides.  The  next  morning  we  pursued 


CHOOSING  A   CAREER.  93 

the  enemy,  and  overtook  them  at  a  town  named  Holberg. 
We  attacked  the  place,  throwing  rockets  and  fuses,  but 
the  English  defended  themselves  valiantly,  and  did  us 
much  harm  with  their  arrows.  We  retired  with  damage, 
and  little  honour.  In  the  retreat  I  lost  my  comrade,  and 
our  servants  who  were  all  in  the  assault.  I  could,  no 
doubt,  have  rejoined  them,  but  I  was  so  fatigued  that  I 
threw  myself  into  a.  ditch,  and  slept  until  daybreak.  On 
Sunday  morning  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  who  was  in  the 
service  of  the  king  of  France,  with  twenty  thousand  men, 
took  his  orders  to  treat  with  the  English,  who  evacuated 
Flanders." 

Consider  the  contrast  of  races  in  the  sequel :  — 

"In  May,  1385,  I  made  a  journey  to  Florence,  and 
returned  to  Paris  in  October,  where  I  learned  that  the 
king  of  France  had  gone  to  Flanders  with  a  large  force  to 
prepare  a  fleet  at  1'Ecluse,  and  go  to  England.  Francesco, 
Berto,  and  I,  well  armed  and  mounted,  went  to  join  the 
king,  with  the  intention  of  taking  part  in  his  expedition. 
When  I  reached  Bruges  I  met  the  same  Lucca  friend  who 
had  been  my  companion  in  the  Grand  Army,  and  we 
again  joined  forces  to  hire  a  vessel,  which  we  did  at 
1'Eeluse,  where  was  the  king  and  his  army,  ready  to 
depart.  I  saw  in  this  port  twelve  hundred  vessels,  half 
of  which  were  transports.  The  army  waited  fifteen  days 
for  good  weather  to  put  to  sea.  In  a  royal  council  the 
masters  of  these  vessels  were  consulted  as  to  the  best 
course  to  pursue.  As  we  were  at  the  end  of  November  it 
seemed  to  them  imprudent  to  depart  with  so  many  ships, 
which  the  first  storm,  would  send  to  bottom.  The  king 
and  his  lords  recognised  the  wisdom  of  this  advice,  and 
we  returned  to  France." 


94  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

In  the  service  of  the  Dukes  of  Orleans,  Berry, 
Burgundy,  and  Bourbon,  dwelling  in  an  atmosphere 
of  court  intrigue  and  dice-playing,  Pitti  might  rea 
sonably  have  been  supposed  to  have  entered  swiftly 
on  the  road  leading  to  destruction.  Instead,  he 
sought  Florence  in  due  course  of  time,  and  decided 
to  marry,  evincing  sagacity  in  the  measure.  Messer 
Tomaso  de'  Neri,  being  a  man  held  in  high  honour 
in  Florence,  Pitti  addressed  himself  to  him  in  the 
most  flattering  manner,  requesting  him  to  select  a 
bride,  and  even  urging  that  the  maiden  should  be  of 
his  own  family.  The  alliance  was  arranged,  and  the 
daughter  of  Luca  di  Piero  Degli  Albizzi  chosen. 
Pitti  became  the  sober  parent,  and  pompous  citizen, 
gathering  wealth,  and  filling  high  offices,  famous  for 
counting  the  fruit  trees  of  his  garden  thus:  "In 
1419,  on  April  twenty-fourth,  I  had  one  hundred 
arid  sixty-four  fig-trees,  eighty  plums,  one  hundred 
and  sixty-six  peaches,  fifty -eight  cherries,  twenty- 
four  almond,  twenty-five  apple,  sixteen  pear,  six 
orange,  four  walnut,  and  sixty  olives  growing." 

The  phase  which  brings  Pitti  very  near  to  Ame 
rigo  Vespucci,  as  illuminating  the  obscure  path  of 
the  latter,  is  presented  in  such  passages  as  these : 

"  In  1417,  in  July,  the  plague  reappeared.  I  left  Flo 
rence  for  Pisa  with  my  wife  and  all  my  children.  Two  days 
later  my  brother  Luigi,  with  his  wife  and  seven  children, 
then  my  nephew  Neri,  his  wife  and  four  children,  joined 
us.  In  August  Neri  died  of  the  pest,  in  September  my 
brother  Luigi,  and  also  his  daughter  Brindella,  aged 


CHOOSING  A   CAREER.  95 

twelve  years.  Learning  that  San  Gerninguario  was  not 
infected,  I  took  my  family  there,  with  the  widow  of  Luigi 
and  her  children,  and  of  Neri  as  well.  These,  with  three 
women-servants,  three  valets,  and  myself,  made  twenty- 
eight  persons  to  nourish,  not  counting  four  horses." 

Or  this  suggestive  line:  — 

"In  1423  the  plague  smote  the  Valdipesa,  and  I  wrote 
to  my  son  Luca,  who  was  living  at  Florence,  with  his 
wife  Fioretta,  and  children,  to  leave  promptly  for  a 
healthy  spot.  He  went  to  Pescia,  where  he  rented  a  fur 
nished  house  for  four  florins  a  month.  I  hastened  to  send 
a  part  of  my  children  to  Pescia,  where  I  and  my  wife 
joined  them  later.  The  house  was  too  small  for  sixteen 
people,  so  I  slept  in  a  neighbouring  habitation,  which  cost 
me  three  livres  a  month.  In  1424  Madama  Margherita, 
widow  of  Francesco  Acciajuoli,  came  to  me  with  her 
daughter  Laudomine,  and  her  son-in-law  Nerozo,  my 
nephew.  They  remained,  and  their  servants,  until  May  in 
the  succeeding  year,  1425.  During  their  stay  Laudomine 
gave  birth  to  a  daughter,  named  Biondella.  I  give  here 
a  note,  of  which  my  wife  has  a  copy,  to  indicate  the 
objects  held  by  my  nephew  in  case  the  dowry  of  Laudo 
mine  should  have  to  be  restored  by  reason  of  her  death. 
The  dot  is  fourteen  thousand  gold  florins." 

The  memoranda  are  curiously  minute :  — 

"  Objects  coming  from  Xerozo  :  a  robe  of  silk  and  gold, 
with  fur,  one  hundred  florins  ;  a  robe  of  crimson,  lined  with 
taffetas,  forty-five  florins ;  a  robe  of  silk  and  gold,  cra- 
moisie,  lined  with  green  taffetas,  twenty  florins ;  a  robe  of 
rose-colour,  double,  eighteen  florins ;  a  dress  of  silk,  gold, 


96  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

and  velvet,  ten  florins;  a  robe,  the  cappuccino  colour, 
lined  with  gray,  fifteen  florins ;  a  black  mantle,  eight 
florins.  .  .  .  Objects  of  Laudomine  :  a  robe  of  silk,  gold, 
and  little  flowers,  seventy-five  florins;  a  crimson  robe, 
lined  with  taffetas,  sixty;  three  silver  belts,  thirty-one; 
an  emerald,  a  silver  collar,  and  a  little  ivory  coffer,  fifty." 

Domestic  interests  did  not  wholly  absorb  his  time. 

"In  1423  I  was  elected  captain  of  Castelcaro  in  the 
Romagna.  I  charged  my  son  Luca  with  the  management 
of  my  estate  while  I  filled  the  office  of  captain.  It  hap 
pened  that  seven  inhabitants  of  Forli,  all  Ghibelline,  came 
to  Castelcaro  with  a  plot  to  deliver  the  town  to  the  Duke 
of  Milan  during  a  night  of  the  carnival.  One  of  the 
seven  was  a  locksmith,  who  had  made  a  false  key  of  the 
gates.  T  arrested  them  all,  and  had  their  heads  cut  oft'." 

There  is  a  fearful  sang-froid  about  this  execution, 
the  reverse  of  the  modern  Italian  code  of  capital 
punishment,  and  which  resembles  the  fiat  of  the 
Queen  of  Hearts  in  "Alice  in  Wonderland  "  :  "Cut 
off  his  head ! "  Indeed  Buonaccorso  Pitti  might 
have  been  more  merciful  to  his  enemies,  considering 
the  danger  always  threatening  his  own  head,  in  those 
long  journeys  beyond  the  city  gates  of  Florence ; 
the  escapade  in  early  youth  of  riding  to  Rome  by 
way  of  Siena,  Perugia,  Lodi,  Spoleto,  and  all  the 
roads  held  by  the  Florentine  League  against  the 
Pope,  at  the  bidding  of  a  coquettish  dame,  only  to  be 
mocked  at  for  a  madman  on  his  return ;  the  banish 
ment  for  slaying  a  stone-cutter  in  the  Guelph  and 


CHOOSING  A   CAREER.  97 

Ghibelline  riots  of  the  streets ;  or  the  encounter 
with  a  troop  of  enemies  near  the  Porta  Komana. 

Amerigo  Vespucci  must  have  closed  this  diary 
of  a  man  of  his  time  with  a  conviction  that  a  similar 
future  awaited  himself,  as  a  well-born  gentleman. 
Why  not  ?  Why  should  he  not  have  returned  from 
Spain  to  marry  prudently  a  maiden  of  fortune,  with 
the  silk  gowns,  and  the  little  ivory  coffer  of  a  Lau- 
domine,  all  enumerated.  Why  should  he  not  have 
been  appointed  governor  of  ancient  walled  cities  of 
the  hills,  and  the  Adriatic  ?  Why  should  he  not 
have  gone  on  missions  to  Nuremberg,  Venice,  or 
have  been  sent  to  Germany  by  the  Florentine  com 
monwealth  to  compliment  a  new  emperor,  as  was 
Pitti  to  Robert  of  Bavaria,  Count  Palatine  of  the 
Rhine,  praying  him  to  come,  and  be  crowned  at 
Rome,  and  curb  the  power  of  the  Duke  of  Milan, 
with  proffers  of  loans  of  thousands  of  gold  coin,  if 
needful  ?  All  these  eventualities  of  life  would  have 
seemed  probable  to  the  young  man  in  the  villa  at 
Trebbio,  preparing  to  depart  for  Spain ;  and  yet  he 
was  destined,  instead,  to  set  sail  for  the  shores  of  a 
new  world. 

A  young  Landuccio,  about  1475,  had  such  a  fond 
ness  for  horses,  especially  the  steeds  of  Barbary,  that 
he  visited  the  Levant  to  buy  them.  He  won  twenty 
palii  (races)  at  Florence. 

A  charming  modern  phase  was  the  enterprise  of 
the  Senator  Carlo  Ginori  of  the  last  century,  who 
collected  clays  and  minerals  for  his  porcelain  man- 


98  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

ufactory  in  Tuscany,  and  sent  a  party  of  young  men 
to  China,  reputed  to  have  brought  the  first  gold  fish 
called  kin-yu  to  Europe,  together  with  rare  plants 
for  Italian  gardens.  These  voyagers  may  have 
achieved  but  trifling  result,  yet  the  spirit  which 
animated  them  was  the  same  that  led  forth  Ame 
rigo  Vespucci  in  the  fifteenth  century.  The  cavalier, 
in  a  furred  mantle  and  leather  jerkin,  with  a  sword 
at  his  side,  is  a  romantic  figure  of  his  day  and  gener 
ation,  spurring  out  of  the  city  gate  on  a  mission 
unique  in  history. 

Of  the  Vespucci  remaining  in  "Florence  the  family 
line  continued  to  be  of  honourable  distinction.  An 
tonio  Vespucci,  brother  of  Amerigo,  held  the  post  of 
First  Chancellor  of  the  Commonwealth  for  a  term  of 
thirty  years.  Bartolommeo,  his  son,  won  the  laureate 
in  medicine,  was  an  excellent  mathematician,  philoso 
pher,  and  cosmographer,  and  gave  public  instruction 
in  astronomy  in  the  University  of  Padua.  Niccolo 
Vespucci,  superior  of  the  Order  of  the  Knights  of 
Malta,  lodged  Ariosto  for  six  months,  in  the  year 
1513,  and  entertained  Leo  X.,  before  the  latter  as 
cended  the  pontifical  throne,  in  the  hospice  built  in 
1050  near  the  spot  where  stood  the  column  of  Mars 
near  the  Ponte  Vecchio  of  Florence. 


CHAPTEK  VII. 

AMERIGO  YESPUCCI. 

AT  this  date  in  the  life  of  Amerigo  Vespucci,  he 
acquires  a  tangible,  and  eminently  suggestive,  his 
torical  personality  to  the  meditative  mind  of  our 
time,  if  thought  is  bestowed  on  him.  We  behold 
him,  each  from  our  own  point  of  view,  quitting  his 
father's  house  and  his  native  city,  to  seek  lucrative 
employment,  if  not  ample  fortune,  in  Spain.  Biog 
raphy  is  not  conclusive  as  to  whether  he  was  in  his 
first  youth,  or  had  already  attained  the  mature  de 
velopment  of  forty  years  of  age.  In  personal 
appearance,  the  most  veracious  portrait  of  him 
seems  to  be  accepted  as  representing  him  as  a  man 
of  medium  stature,  well  made,  and  of  a  robust  con 
stitution,  with  black  hair,  a  dark  complexion,  and 
the  strongly  accentuated  Florentine,  masculine  type 
of  features,  which  evinces  intelligence  and  refine 
ment.  The  face  of  Amerigo  Vespucci  is  not  as 
familiar  to  us  as  others  of  the  famous  brotherhood 
of  Florentines,  and  the  great  men  who  shared  in  the 
development  of  the  commonwealth.  The  subtle, 
delicate  physiognomy  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  with  the 
flowing  brown  beard  and  hair,  is  well  known,  as  the 


100  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

rugged  countenance  of  Michelangelo,  the  calm  in 
telligence  of  Galileo,  the  keen  profile  of  Macchia- 
velli,  and  the  profound  gaze  of  Savonarola.  No 
contemporary  of  note  has  bequeathed  to  us  such  a 
sketch  in  words  of  the  real,  living  person  as  Boccac 
cio's  description  of  Dante,  gathered  from  a  near  time, 
in  the  case  of  Vespucci.  For  the  rest,  Vespucci  was 
a  quiet  and  modest  man,  of  good  manners  and  a 
tolerant  disposition,  entitled  to  the  respect  of  his 
associates  and  of  posterity  hy  reason  of  his  supe 
rior  abilities.  He  was  further  endowed  with  a  pru 
dence  of  conduct  in  his  subsequent  relations  with 
strangers  worthy  of  all  possible  commendation.  He 
had  that  trait  of  character  which  is  notably  Ameri 
can,  a  conservative  minding  his  own  business,  and 
not  attempting  to  meddle  and  regulate  the  affairs  of 
others,  whether  of  individuals  or  States,  which 
should  entitle  him  to  be  ranked  as  the  godfather  of 
the  race.  We  thus  see  him  departing  from  Florence 
for  Spain  in  the  interests  of  the  Medici,  at  once  pat 
rons  and  friends,  who  were  teaching  their  neigh 
bours,  the  impecunious  kings  harassed  by  wars,  and 
spendthrift  nobles,  the  power  of  the  merchant  prince 
and  financier  in  the  game  of  European  politics,  their 
sole  rival  the  Frenchman  Jacques  Cosur  of  Bourges. 
Amerigo  Vespucci  had  the  courage  and  enterprise 
requisite  to  depart  from  his  native  hills,  and  con 
front  the  world  with  all  its  hazards  and  eventuali 
ties.  Such  a  mediaeval  journey  to  Spain,  whether 
undertaken  by  sea  or  land,  meant  something  more 


Statue  of  Savonarola. 


AMERIGO   VESPUCCI.  101 

than  a  modern  tour  by  rail  and  steam.  The  Flor 
entine  gentleman  was  equipped  for  the  struggle  with 
an  ample  store  of  education,  if  his  purse  was  light 
and  his  name  obscure.  Better  than  gold  coin  in  his 
belt,  and  the  ready  sword  of  the  adventurous  cava 
lier  on  the  robber  infested  highway,  was  this  resource 
of  early  instruction.  To  the  pioneer  farmer  who 
seeks  a  home  in  the  great  West  or  South  of  Amer 
ica,  Australia,  and  Africa  a  knowledge  of  chemistry, 
geology,  and  botany  acquires  inestimable  importance 
in  aiding  him  to  conquer  the  little  kingdom  of  a 
farm  which  he  strives  to  subdue  to  his  needs.  To 
the  rover  in  the  Antipodes  in  this  age  of  globe-trot 
ters  the  key  of  languages,  and  even  dialects,  of  old 
Europe  may  serve,  on  occasion,  to  save  his  own  life, 
as  well  as  the  lives  of  his  fellows,  by  inadvertently 
acting  the  eavesdropper  on  criminal  schemes  of  out 
casts  of  society  in  camp  and  mine. 

The  superior  acquirements  of  Amerigo  Vespucci 
in  astronomy  and  the  science  of  navigation  —  studies 
pursued  by  him  to  the  last  days  of  his  life  at  the 
court  of  Spain,  and  no  doubt  stimulated  by  the 
influence  of  Toscanelli  in  Florence,  at  the  beginning 
—  rendered  his  post  on  board  of  the  Spanish  and 
Portuguese  ships  of  the  first  importance,  especially 
in  storms  and  disaster ;  so  that  the  voyages  may  be 
claimed  as  his  own  in  the  full  sense  of  command. 
Provided  with  a  store  of  the  scholarship  of  his  time, 
he  was  further  endowed  with  the  requisite  intelli 
gence  to  use  it  as  opportunity  demanded.  He  had  a 


102  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

fair  knowledge  of  astronomy,  and  in  methods  of 
calculating  longitude  and  latitude  he  gained  unusual 
proficiency,  which  enabled  him  to  hold  a  post  at 
court  of  the  first  importance  under  King  Ferdinand 
of  Spain.  Both  Peter  Martyr  and  Sebastian  Cabot 
commended  his  abilities  in  these  branches  of  study. 
The  former  mentions  examining  many  nautical 
instruments,  globes,  and  maps  known  as  sailors' 
charts,  or  cards  of  the  sea,  in  a  secret  chamber,  in 
company  with  Bishop  Fonseca.  One  of  these  was 
Portuguese,  to  which  Americus  Vespucius  had  put 
his  hand,  being  a  man  most  expert  in  this  faculty, 
and  a  Florentine  by  birth,  who,  also,  in  the  pay  of 
Portugal,  had  sailed  toward  the  South  Pole.  An 
Italian  biographer  scorns  the  necessity  of  Vespucci's 
childhood  of  an  extraordinary  man  being  full  of 
marvels,  similar  to  that  of  the  infant  Hercules 
strangling  the  serpent  sent  to  kill  him  by  Juno. 
He  further  denies  the  need  of  the  Florentine  navi 
gator's  affording  such  little  anecdotes  of  boyhood,  to 
awaken  puerile  and  mere  vulgar  curiosity  in  the  mul 
titude,  as  the  statement  that  Pascal,  at  the  age  of 
twelve  years,  without  the  aid  of  books,  and  impelled 
by  the  power  of  his  own  genius,  alone,  solved  the 
thirty-two  propositions  of  the  first  book  of  Euclid. 
In  the  opinion  of  his  countryman,  at  once  whim 
sical  and  glowing,  he  was  no  prodigy  of  apocryphal 
talents  in  early  years,  yet  by  the  lucidity  of  his  own 
mind  succeeded  in  solving  the  obscurity  previously 
enveloping  half  of  the  globe.  Vespucci,  according  to 


AMERIGO   VESPUCCI.  103 

this  authority,  united  a  fervent  imagination  to  the 
most  scrupulous  reasoning  faculty,  possessed  subtle 
powers  of  theorising,  yet  adhered  firmly  to  a  practical 
manipulation  of  complicated  instruments,  studied 
without  respite  the  planets  and  stars,  gained  familiar 
ity  with  unexplored  lands  and  seas,  combined  the  rest 
less  activity  of  the  traveller  with  the  repose  of  the 
philosopher,  the  valour  of  the  soldier  with  the 
prudence  of  the  mariner,  the  speculative  spirit  of 
the  merchant  with  the  honourable  integrity  of  the 
citizen,  vigour  with  sensibility,  and  audacity  with  a 
religious  spirit.  In  addition  he  had  considerable 
familiarity  with  natural  history,  which  was  prob 
ably  acquired  from  his  uncle,  the  Dominican,  in  the 
botanical  gardens  and  pharmacies  of  the  monkish 
orders  about  Florence,  and  the  villas  and  parks  of 
Tuscany,  where  rare  plants  of  the  East  were  early 
cultivated,  as  well  as  wild  animals  kept  in  preserves 
for  a  pastime  of  the  nobles.  We  should  remember 
the  superiority  of  Vespucci  to  his  companions,  in 
this  particular,  when  he  reached  America  in  his 
voyages.  The  Spanish  and  Portuguese  crew  were 
intent  only  on  obtaining  gold,  pearls,  and  precious 
spices,  with  a  feverish  eagerness  to  gain  wealth, 
and  realise  the  dream  of  Europe  as  regarded  the 
unknown  realms  of  the  West,  while  Vespucci 
observed  the  climate,  minerals,  roots,  plants,  and 
useful  fruits  of  tropical  forests,  even  noting  the 
virtues  of  medicinal  barks  of  trees  and  balsams,  as 
well  as  the  customs  of  the  natives,  the  birds, 


104  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

animals,  and  fish  of  the  coast.  Indeed,  the  trifling 
fragments  of  letters  left  by  him,  together  with  other 
spurious  writings  attributed  to  him  long  after  his 
death,  were  sufficient  to  arouse  the  most  lively 
curiosity  and  interest  in  all  civilised  lands,  espe 
cially  his  description  of  the  innocent  iguana,  of 
repulsive  exterior  and  delicate  edible  qualities,  as 
a  sort  of  fabulous  dragon.  If  the  public  was  dazzled 
by  the  account  of  the  suave  delights  of  the  Earthly 
Paradise  as  given  by  Columbus,  and  the  treasure 
in  gold  and  Indian  slaves  brought  back  to  Spain  by 
him,  the  letters  of  Amerigo  Vespucci  to  his  friend 
Soderini  and  his  patron  Lorenzo  di  Piero  Francesco 
de'  Medici  may  be  said  to  have  awakened  in  man 
kind  that  Eobinson  Crusoe  instinct  of  seeking  palms 
and  coral  reefs,  jungle  and  desert,  as  explorers  and 
sportsmen,  down  to  our  day. 

Such  were  the  gifts  and  the  education  of  the 
Florentine  gentleman  when  he  prepared  to  seek  for 
tune  in  Spain.  He  has  been  mentioned  contempt 
uously,  by  even  the  English-speaking  historical 
element  of  succeeding  generations,  as  an  unscrupu 
lous  adventurer,  who  had  managed  to  "  pick  up  "  a 
little  knowledge  of  navigation,  which  lie  had  the 
effrontery,  apparently,  to  use  in  saving  the  vessels 
in  which  he  sailed  from  shipwreck,  on  more  than 
one  occasion  acting  as  pilot,  astronomer,  and  cos- 
mographer.  How  readily  does  the  tide  of  heedless 
public  opinion,  founded  on  the  active  malice  of  an 
enemy,  set  against  the  fair  fame  of  a  man  after  he 
is  in  his  grave ! 


AMERIGO   VESPUCCI.  105 

The  belief  that  Vespucci  was  mature  when  he 
left  Florence  for  Spain  would  seem  rational,  as  he 
took  several  young  Florentines  under  his  care,  and 
his  own  nephew,  Giovanni  Vespucci.  The  latter 
was  destined  to  win  esteem  in  Spain,  as  a  young 
man  of  excellent  capacities,  who  must  have  made 
voyages  with  his  illustrious  kinsman,  and  inherited 
his  charts,  compasses,  and  astronomical  instruments. 
The  bland  commendation  of  Peter  Martyr  will  be 
remembered,  in  which  the  younger  Vespucci  was 
designated  as  his  familiar  friend,  a  witty  person, 
and  frequently  his  guest.  The  other  youth  must 
have  eventually  sunk  into  obscure  mediocrity, 
settled  to  various  employments  in  Spain,  or  returned 
to  Italy  with  a  competency ;  for  we  hear  no  more  of 
them,  either  as  companions  sharing  the  hardships 
of  Vespucci's  voyages,  or  cheering  him  in  hours  of 
discouragement  and  difficulties  by  the  warm  adhe 
rence  of  unswerving  friendship. 

We  shall  follow  the  career  of  Amerigo  Vespucci, 
from  this  starting-point,  striving  to  realise  the 
wonderful  experiences  fate  had  in  store  for  him  in 
that  day,  in  connection  with  the  discovery  of  Amer 
ica,  an  epoch  ever  memorable  in  the  history  of 
nations.  He  went  to  Barcelona  in  the  service  of 
the  Medici.  Thence  he  made  his  way  to  Seville, 
was  drawn  into  relations  with  a  Florentine  by  the 
name  of  Berardi,  who  fitted  out  vessels  for  the 
voyages  of  the  time,  and  formed  an  acquaintance  of 
the  most  harmonious  and  enduring  fellowship  with 


106  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

Columbus  and  his  jealous,  exacting  sons,  Diego  and 
Ferdinand.  Berardi  died,  and  Vespucci  took  his 
place  as  an  outfitter  of  ships,  thus  gaining  such 
familiarity  with  marine  matters  as  he  might  not 
otherwise  have  done. 

The  next  step  amidst  the  excitement  prevailing 
in  Seville  over  the  return  of  Columbus  from  the 
coast  of  Asia,  as  all  believed,  was  to  embark,  him 
self,  on  the  expedition  of  1497,  which  sailed  in  the 
month  of  May  from  Cadiz.  This  first  voyage  was 
undertaken  under  the  patronage  of  King  Ferdinand, 
and  at  the  instigation  of  Bishop  Fonseca.  The 
venture  was  unsuccessful  in  bringing  back  great 
wealth  to  the  Aragonese  monarch,  and  while  it  was 
known  to  have  taken  place  in  Spain,  the  question 
of  infringement  on  the  rights  of  Portugal,  and  of 
Columbus,  rendered  it  prudent  to  say  little  about 
the  destination  of  the  expedition.  Nor  did  either 
voyager  or  patron  know  what  they  had  actually 
attained  in  the  generally  accepted  conviction  of  the 
smallness  of  the  circumference  of  the  globe. 

According  to  the  latest  and  clearest  researches  on 
the  subject,  of  American  students,  we  may  accompany 
Vespucci  on  that  first  marvellous  threading  of  un 
known  seas  in  a  little  cockle-shell  boat  to  the 
Canary  Islands,  Cape  Honduras,  around  Yucatan  to 
Tabasco,  observing  the  little  wooden  town  of  Vene 
zuela,  built  on  piles  and  furnished  with  bridges,  as 
a  sort  of  aboriginal  Venice,  skirting  Tampico  which 
he  was  long  understood  to  have  named  Lariab,  and 


AMERIGO   VESPUCCI.  107 

wise  scholars  subsequently  explained  to  their  own 
satisfaction  as  meaning  Paria,  thus  casting  a  doubt 
on  the  whole  voyage  as  fictitious. 

Passing  over  the  famous  description  of  the  iguana 
roasting  on  a  spit  before  the  fire,  the  cakes  of  fish 
eaten  by  the  Indians,  the  villages,  and  general  aspect 
of  the  country,  the  vessels  traversed  some  eight  hun 
dred  and  seventy  leagues  of  a  varied  coast  through 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  skirted  Florida,  and  finally 
visited  the  islands  of  certain  cannibals,  supposed  to 
be  the  Bermudas.  This  epistle,  written  in  a  hasty, 
even  humorous  vein  to  his  friend  Soderini,  at 
Florence,  has  occasioned  confusion  and  debate  with 
succeeding  generations,  especially  from  the  fact  of 
Vespucci's  not  mentioning  the  name  of  his  com 
mander  and  associates.  We  may  hope  to  grasp  the 
meaning  of  this  silence,  serving  as  the  very  bone  of 
contention  worried  by  more  or  less  surly  criticism 
on  the  part  of  various  nationalities,  much  in  the 
same  manner  that  the  writer  once  overheard  a 
grumpy,  elderly  tourist  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  in 
a  private  picture  gallery  of  Florence,  to  which 
visitors  were  courteously  admitted,  free  of  charge, 
on  a  certain  day  of  the  week,  demand,  "  Why  don't 
they  put  the  names  of  the  painters  on  the  frames 
and  save  the  trouble  of  catalogues  ? "  Why  did  not 
Amerigo  Vespucci  make  all  details  clear  in  his 
missive  to  Soderini,  and  save  a  deal  of  perplexity 
to  his  successors?  He  was  not  responsible  to  us 
for  what  he  chose  to  impart  to  his  fellow  country- 


108 


man.  He  did  not  pose  on  the  stage  of  the  theatre 
of  the  world  in  sending  a  greeting  homeward  to  the 
banks  of  the  Arno. 

The  age  was  essentially  one  of  letter  writing; 
noble  ladies,  Popes,  and  poets  vied  with  each  other 
in  polished  phrases,  well-turned  compliments,  and 
classical  allusions.  Peter  Martyr  was  a  diffuse  cor 
respondent,  and  his  Latin  not  invariably  of  the  best 
quality.  Vespucci's  letter  did  not  pretend  to  be 
cast  in  careful  mould,  but  it  possessed  an  element 
of  good-breeding  and  tact,  which  we  might  well 
emulate  in  the  aggressive  egotism  of  our  day.  This 
sailor,  who  had  reached  the  continent  of  America, 
addressed  his  schoolmate  as  a  grave  magistrate  of  the 
city  of  Florence  whom  he  would  not  weary  with 
the  details  of  longitude  and  latitude,  and  other 
marine  matters  destined  to  be  carefully  noted  in  a 
future  book,  but  to  amuse  a  leisure  hour  with  a 
slight  description  of  the  savages,  animals,  and  birds 
he  had  seen  on  his  travels. 

The  second  voyage,  less  obscure,  was  undertaken 
in  1499  with  Alonzo  de  Ojeda  as  military  chief,  and 
Juan  de  la  Cosa  as  fellow  pilot.  The  vessels  ex 
plored  the  northern  coast  of  South  America  as  far 
as  Brazil  and  the  Pearl  Coast,  visited  by  Columbus 
the  previous  year,  to  the  Gulf  of  Maracaibo,  where 
the  squadron  separated,  Ojeda  seeking  Hispaniola, 
while  Vespucci  remained  cruising  about  for  several 
months  longer.  Hence  the  descriptions  of  places 
given  by  the  two  voyagers  did  not  wholly  agree. 


AMERIGO   VESPUCCI.  109 

Still  ignorant  of  the  magnitude  of  the  achievement, 
Vespucci  stated  on  July  18th,  1500  :  "We  discovered 
a  very  large  country  of  Asia."  Wholly  unsuccessful, 
as  far  as  the  requirements  of  King  Ferdinand  exacted 
gold,  Vespucci  transferred  his  services  to  King 
Emmanuel  of  Portugal  in  1501,  and  the  following 
season  made  his  third  voyage  with  Don  Nuno 
Manuel,  touching  at  the  Cape  Verde  Islands,  and 
following  the  Brazilian  coast  southward  to  the 
island  of  South  Georgia. 

We  shall  see  that  on  a  fourth  voyage,  in  1503, 
under  command  of  Gonzalo  Coelho,  Vespucci  once 
more  skirted  the  Brazilian  shores  in  a  southerly 
direction  with  the  aim  of  finding  a  passage  into  the 
Indian  Ocean;  but  the  voyage  ended  in  peril  and 
disaster.  Vespucci  returned  once  more  to  Lisbon, 
having  accomplished  nothing  in  the  estimation  of 
the  Portuguese  sovereign  and  his  own.  If  posterity 
be  imbued  with  that  true  spirit  of  patriotism  which 
consists  in  fulfilling  one's  duty  to  the  human  race, 
and  especially  in  striving  to  make  a  worthy  person 
respected  by  all  the  races  of  the  earth,  America's 
godfather  attains  a  high  rank  of  heroism  and  cour 
age  battling  with  storm,  cold,  and  darkness  in  the 
vicinity  of  Patagonia,  his  whole  nature  moved  to 
awe  and  astonishment  by  losing  sight  of  the  con 
stellations  of  the  heavens  familiar  to  Europe,  while 
the  strange  Magellanic  Clouds  became  visible 
toward  the  South  Pole,  and  the  skill  with  which 
he  piloted  the  disabled  craft  on  a  homeward  stretch, 


110  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

without  the  caravels  foundering  in  mid  ocean,  or 
perishing  of  want  owing  to  false  reckoning  on  the 
part  of  one  of  the  company.  The  indignant  protest 
of  Canovai  would  seem  merited,  that  Vespucci  did 
not  follow  in  the  track  of  Columbus,  who  colonised 
the  West  Indian  Islands,  and  was  further  intent  on 
establishing  the  rights  of  himself  and  his  family  to 
nobility  and  fortune  under  the  Spanish  crown,  but 
followed  the  coast  of  a  continent,  tested  baffling 
currents  at  the  mouth  of  great  rivers,  and  sailed 
far  toward  the  Antarctic  Zone. 

Vespucci  once  more  sought  the  service  of  Spain, 
in  1504  married  a  Spanish  lady,  Maria  Cerezo,  and 
was  accorded  the  important  office  of  pilot-major  at 
court  by  King  Ferdinand.  He  fulfilled  the  duties 
of  this  post  for  several  years,  and  died  at  Seville  in 
1512.  Juan  Diaz  de  Solis  succeeded  him,  and,  later, 
Sebastian  Cabot  held  the  place.  The  statement  that 
Amerigo  Vespucci  was  buried  on  one  of  the  Azores, 
surrounded  by  the  waves  of  the  ocean  so  many  times 
traversed  by  him,  has  a  certain  picturesqueness,  but 
is  incorrect.  Even  if  we  fail  to  feel  any  especial 
interest  in  Vespucci,  we  no  longer  have  excuse  to 
misjudge  his  true  character,  owing  to  the  investiga 
tions  of  certain  modern  great  minds  on  his  behalf. 
These,  not  satisfied  with  unhesitatingly  accepting 
the  dates  and  statements  of  Herrera  as  all  predeces 
sors  have  done,  have  sought  the  original  sources  of 
information  for  themselves,  and  found  the  compila 
tion  of  the  Spanish  historian  by  no  means  infallible 


AMERIGO   VESPUCCI.  Ill 

in  accuracy,  as  well  as  the  collection  of  voyages  of 
early  Italian  authors. 

We  hold  the  thread  of  the  untangled  skein  of  the 
career  of  America's  godfather.  Once  unravelled  by 
logical  reasoning,  how  smoothly  runs  the  line  of  his 
dim  and  wondering  perception  of  the  vast  extent  of 
the  lands  discovered  to  the  westward,  and  decision 
that  the  region  should  be  considered  a  fourth  part 
of  the  globe,  after  the  death  of  Columbus ;  of  the 
novelty  of  the  species  inhabiting  those  unknown 
shores,  which  he  suggested  in  a  letter  to  Lorenzo 
de'  Medici  might  well  be  called  a  new  world ;  of 
Cuba  detaching  its  length  of  leagues  from  obscurity 
as  an  island !  At  least  let  us  no  longer  repeat  the 
idle  calumny  so  glibly  told  by  men  of  education  of 
different  nationalities  in  the  present  day,  that  Ves 
pucci  inserted  his  name  in  the  place  of  honour  on 
the  maps,  a  treacherous  usurpation  of  the  rights  of 
Columbus. 

There  was  no  question  of  the  discovery  of  America 
during  the  lifetime  of  either  of  these  illustrious  navi 
gators,  nor  in  the  day  of  the  sons  of  Columbus,  we 
reaffirm.  Kather,  let  us  dwell  on  the  quaint  and 
charming  picture  of  the  group  of  students  at  St. 
Die",  in  Lorraine,  under  the  patronage  of  Duke  Kene* 
II.,  devoting  their  time  to  perfecting  a  new  edition 
of  Ptolemy's  Geography  in  1506,  and,  interested 
in  all  matters  concerning  Vespucci,  after  a  perusal 
of  his  letter  written  from  Lisbon  to  the  Medici  in 
Italian,  and  transposed  into  Latin,  at  Paris,  by  Fra 


112  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

Giocondo,  the  famous  mathematician  of  Verona,  sug 
gesting  a  christening  of  Brazil  and  portions  of  South 
America  simply  "  America,"  even  as  "  Europe  "  and 
"  Africa  "  were  supposed  to  have  feminine  derivations. 
The  title  evidently  pleased  the  public  ear,  as  harmo 
nious  and  convenient,  without  too  much  heed  being 
given  to  the  justice  of  the  sources  of  the  appellation. 
Step  by  step,  after  the  scholars  of  Lorraine  had 
passed  away,  maps  gradually  incorporated  larger 
tracks  of  the  hitherto  unfamiliar  continent  under 
the  same  designation,  until  Las  Casas  sounded  the 
note  of  alarm  that  the  dead  Vespucci  was  being  too 
much  talked  about,  instead  of  the  dead  Columbus. 

An  eminent  English  prelate  recently  affirmed  that 
human  nature  is  pitiably  small  in  our  nineteenth 
century,  and  prone  to  depreciate  all  nobility  of 
motive  or  character.  If  such  is  the  verdict  on 
modern  civilisation  how  can  we  expect  the  fair 
fame  of  Vespucci  in  preceding  centuries  to  have 
escaped  the  fiercest  contests  of  jealousy,  suspicion, 
and  malice,  in  the  claims  of  different  countries  to 
the  discovery  of  the  Indies,  the  route  to  Cathay 
and  Cipango,  Novus-Mundus,  or  Quarta  Pars  ? 

We  revert  to  the  leave-taking  of  the  Florentine 
youth,  about  to  set  forth  from  the  gates  of  their 
beautiful  little  city  to  win  fortune  in  the  busy 
world  beyond.  Bandini  affirms  that  Vespucci's 
father  sent  him,  an  elder  brother  having  met  only 
with  failure  and  discouragement  in  voyaging  to  the 
East.  We  may  reasonably  surmise,  therefore,  that 


AMERIGO  VESPUCCI.  113 

the  worthy  citizen,  Anastasio  Vespucci,  saw  his 
third  son  off,  in  company  with  Lorenzo  de'  Medici, 
who  bethought  him  of  certain  parting  injunctions 
to  give  Amerigo  as  to  a  wise  course  to  adopt  in 
looking  after  a  presumably  dishonest  agent  of  affairs 
in  Spain. 

There  was  no  telegraph  system  in  that  day.  Ves 
pucci's  mother,  Madonna  Lisabetta,  was  assuredly 
of  the  party,  if  she  still  lived  at  the  date  of  his 
departure,  with  final  words  of  affectionate  warn 
ing,  and  timorous  doubts  as  to  the  dangers  of  the 
long  journey.  The  foster-mother,  the  nurse  from 
the  villa  property  at  Peretola,  sun-bronzed  and 
smiling,  with  her  children  and  grandchildren  hover 
ing  near,  was  at  the  gate  to  obtain  a  last  admiring 
glance  at  her  boy  who  was  to  acquire  such  renown. 
Doubtless  she  brought  him  some  mediaeval  offering 
from  the  country,  equivalent  to  the  modern  fowl 
cackling  in  a  basket  of  railway  carriages. 

Lost  to  history  is  the  maiden  who  may  have 
gazed  forth  from  the  grated  casement,  with  a  sigh 
of  regret,  then  hastened  up  the  stone  stairway  to 
the  open  loggia  on  the  palace  roof  of  her  home 
for  a  last  glimpse  of  Amerigo  Vespucci.  Would  he 
ever  return,  and  demand  her  hand  in  marriage, 
with  due  regard  to  the  dowry,  jewels,  and  store  of 
household  linen  which  would  fall  to  her  portion,  as 
became  a  prudent  and  thrifty  Florentine  ?  Would 
she  have  faded  from  precocious  and  brilliant  bloom 
of  youth  to  a  shadowy  nun  in  a  convent  by  the  day 

8 


114  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

of  his  tardy  coming,  or  have  been  long  the  wife  of 
another  gallant  knight  ? 

Eventually  Amerigo  Vespucci  intended  to  retrace 
his  way  to  the  banks  of  the  Arno.  In  his  corre 
spondence  with  the  Medici,  in  1503,  he  states  that 
he  has  already  compiled  several  pamphlets,  giving 
definite  and  accurate  details  of  his  voyages.  These 
notes  were  in  the  hands  of  the  King  of  Portugal ; 
but  Vespucci  anticipated  soon  having  them  restored 
to  him.  Seventeen  months  later  he  wrote  to 
Soderini,  and  referred  to  his  plan  of  a  book,  not  yet 
revised  and  published,  which  he  entitled  his  "  Four 
Journeys."  He  early  expressed  the  hope  of  retiring 
to  Florence  to  complete  his  work  at  leisure,  with  the 
advice  of  learned  men,  thus  utilising  in  the  most 
accurate  manner  his  knowledge  of  cosmography. 
But  Vespucci  did  not  return,  and  his  book,  which 
would  have  been  of  value  to  the  world,  was  lost,  or 
fell  into  the  hands  of  enemies  and  was  destroyed. 

In  the  parting  of  kindred  at  the  city  gate,  laugh 
ter,  jesting,  and  the  shedding  of  some  feminine 
tears  occurred.  Who  would  survive,  of  the  circle  of 
relatives  and  friends,  to  welcome  home  once  more 
Amerigo  Vespucci  ?  Then  the  grave  citizens  retraced 
their  steps  to  their  warehouses  and  counting-rooms. 
They  were  quite  accustomed  to  sending  forth  the 
fledglings  of  their  nests  to  distant  countries.  Doubt 
less  they  discussed  the  rates  of  exchange  on  England 
or  Flanders,  and  the  market  value  of  wool  and  silk, 
as  they  traversed  the  dark  and  winding  streets. 


AMERIGO   VESPUCCI.  115 

Did  they  not  have  dealings  with  the  Black  Sea,  the 
Euxine,  the  Levant,  the  Nile,  Syria,  Barbary,  and 
the  Greek  Isles,  as  well  as  opulent  Venice  and 
Genoa  ?  Little  did  those  shrewd  merchants  dream 
that  bold  Vasco  di  Gama  was  soon  to  double  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  with  the  result  that  Europe 
would  cease  to  depend  on  the  trade  of  the  Italian 
republics.  Still  less  could  they  have  foreseen  the 
extraordinary  fame  in  store  for  the  quiet  Florentine 
who  had  just  quitted  their  midst  for  ever. 

The  women  sought  some  favourite  church  on  the 
route  homeward,  and  murmured  a  prayer  for  the 
safety  of  the  departed  traveller.  Within  the  walls 
of  Florence  life  flowed  on. 


CHAPTEE  VIII. 

THE   STRIKING  OF  THE   HOUR. 

BANDINI  states :  "  Whatever  different  opinions 
may  be  respecting  other  matters,  it  is  certain  that 
Amerigo  Vespucci  left  Florence  about  the  year  1490, 
and  went  to  Spain  in  the  interests  of  commerce, 
which  was  the  principal  object  of  his  voyage." 

According  to  other  authorities  Vespucci  dwelt,  in 
an  uneventful  fashion,  at  Florence  until  nearly  forty 
years  of  age,  having  entered  the  commercial  service 
of  the  house  of  Medici,  and  was  sent  to  Spain  by 
Lorenzo  di  Pier  Francesco  de'  Medici.  Several 
young  Florentines  accompanied  him,  also  in  search 
of  a  career,  and  they  went  to  Barcelona.  Did  he 
seek  another  country  in  order  to  extend  the  trade  in 
wool  of  his  quarter  of  the  town  ?  —  the  cloths  dressed 
and  dyed  in  Florence  being  so  superior  to  all  other 
manufacture,  with  the  exception  of  the  towns  of 
Lombardy,  that  in  the  first  half  of  the  fourteenth 
century  the  annual  sales  amounted  to  seventy  or 
eighty  pieces  of  goods.  The  service  of  the  princely 
Medici  of  that  date  is  a  matter  of  varied  suggestive- 
ness.  One  may  imagine  the  later  descendants  of 
shrewd  John  and  Cosimo  de'  Medici  as  negotiating 


Statue  of  Cosmo  de'  Medici. 


THE    STRIKING   OF   THE   HOUR.  117 

loans  with  impecunious  sovereigns,  and  establishing 
counting-houses  in  foreign  cities ;  but  in  mercantile 
transactions,  nothing  less  than  silken  stuffs,  rare 
gems  and  intaglios,  Greek  vases,  and  chalices  of 
wrought  gold,  silver,  and  cut  crystal  seems  to  apper 
tain  to  them.  When  Vespucci  is  not  designated  as 
an  adventurer  and  a  story-teller  (conteur),  modern 
Anglo-Saxon  historians  place  a  certain  stress  on  the 
statement  that  his  family  was  impoverished.  The 
purse  of  the  Florentine  gentleman  may  have  been 
light  on  his  arrival  in  Spain,  but  the  poverty  of  his 
race  is  not  proved  by  the  circumstance. 

In  the  record  of  the  times  one  of  the  most  curious 
phases  of  society  is  the  contrast  of  the  simplicity  of 
customs  with  a  regal  pomp  as  developed  in  small 
commonwealths.  Florence  was  democratic  and  in 
dustrial,  while  Venice  was  patrician  and  commercial. 
The  Florentine  burgher  was  the  potentate  of  the 
counter,  without  title  or  crown,  as  opposed  to  neigh 
bouring  military  and  feudal  principalities.  Cosimo 
de'  Medici  has  been  termed  the  Caesar  of  bankers, 
who  loaned  620,000  ecus  to  King  Edward  of  England, 
and  to  Charles  of  Burgundy  80,000  ecus,  as  Lorenzo 
the  Magnificent  received  the  appellation  of  the 
Pericles  of  the  house  for  his  erudition  as  a  merchant- 
philosopher,  and  culture  of  the  artist-financier,  yet 
sold  the  use  of  his  name  to  various  traffics,  and 
was  given  ^by  the  Signory  of  his  city  the  contract  to 
furnish  cloth  to  the  troops.  In  our  day  a  Titian  or 
a  Rubens  would  group  those  keen-witted  Florentines 


118  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

as  inspecting  the  latest  application  of  electricity, 
considering  the  project  of  founding  a  new  life-as 
surance  company,  or  meditating  on  a  syndicate  in 
mines,  instead  of  studying  charts  concerning  the 
roundness  of  the  earth.  The  cavalier  Messer  Pitti, 
who  journeyed  to  Buda  to  speculate  in  the  sale  of 
drugs,  other  goods,  and  horses,  certainly  belonged  to 
a  family  of  great  wealth. 

The  departure  of  Amerigo  Vespucci  possesses  a 
picturesque  aspect  apart  from  the  momentous  re 
sults  of  this  journey  on  his  subsequent  life.  The 
Medici  proclivities  of  a  brilliant  and  short-lived  race 
were  rapidly  assuming  the  phase  of  lavish  expen 
diture,  in  the  increase  of  despotic  power,  instead  of 
the  accumulation  of  thrifty  earnings.  If  Vespucci 
actually  carried  Italian  goods  to  Spain  it  must  have 
been  as  a  sort  of  pedler,  for  in  those  unsettled  times 
a  merchant  was  obliged  to  accompany  and  protect 
his  wares,  either  banding  together  with  others  in  a 
caravan  in  travelling  on  land  to  a  distant  mart,  pre 
pared  to  resist  the  attack  of  robber  barons  watching 
for  such  victims  to  pass  their  castles  on  the  route,  or 
chartering  a  vessel  to  voyage  by  water,  when  the 
captain  and  crew  were  given  a  pecuniary  interest  in 
the  cargo  to  insure  mutual  zeal  against  the  violence 
of  pirates,  and  the  risk  of  bales  of  merchandise 
being  cast  overboard  too  readily  in  storms,  to  lighten 
the  craft. 

The  modern  pedler  of  rural  districts,  with  his 
pack  on  his  back,  lacks  the  dignity  and  importance 


THE   STRIKING   OF  THE   HOUR.  119 

of  the  trader  of  the  Middle  Ages,  when  the  citizens 
of  such  maritime  republics  as  Pisa,  Genoa,  Venice, 
Marseilles,  and  Barcelona,  equipped  ships  —  the 
symbol  of  human  activity  —  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  and  after  the  Crusades,  to  venture  even  on 
unknown  seas.  Thus  in  the  fourteenth  century 
the  shores  of  Provence,  Iberia,  Palestine,  the  African 
coast,  Asia  Minor,  Armenia,  Persia,  Macedonia, 
Thrace,  and  the  islands  of  the  Archipelago  were 
reached  by  the  route  of  Mediterranean  navigation 
as  a  channel  of  enterprise  for  Italians,  especially 
the  dealers  of  Amalfi,  Ancona,  Venice,  Genoa,  and 
Lucca.  England,  Holland,  and  even  Sweden,  were 
frequented  in  time,  after  a  passage  of  the  Straits  of 
Gibraltar  had  been  effected. 

In  all  these  ventures  the  Florentine  had  ever  been 
too  prominent  for  the  journey,  or  voyage,  of  Amerigo 
Vespucci  to  have  aroused  comment,  whether  in  the 
service  of  his  family,  or  of  the  house  of  Medici. 
The  Florentine  was  known  in  the  ports  of  Africa 
and  Asia,  in  all  the  marts  of  Germany,  where  the 
bankers  Bardi  and  Peruzzi  attained  a  powerful  in 
fluence,  and  the  annual  fairs  of  different  countries, 
the  silks  and  wools  of  Florence  finding  a  sale  with 
the  oils  of  Provence,  the  fruits  of  the  Mediterranean, 
and  the  wines  of  Spain.  The  incentives  to  increased 
activity  were  constantly  developing  on  every  side,  as 
a  feature  of  the  age,  and  Vespucci  was  one  of  the 
shuttles  shot  across  the  loom.  If  doughty  Buonac- 
corso  Pitti,  riding  forth  on  his  steed  out  of  the  gates 


120  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

of  Florence,  was  not  a  true  speculator,  in  the  later 
sense  of  the  term,  he  was  assuredly  a  notable  example 
of  a  prototype.  Amerigo  Vespucci  may  also  have 
cherished  many  agreeable  schemes  of  getting  gain, 
as  he  quitted  his  native  shores  of  Italy.  If  we  pause 
to  contemplate  him  in  this  aspect,  amidst  the  mo 
mentous  events,  the  feverish  conflicts  of  ambition 
in  nations,  and  the  magnificent  discoveries  of  his 
century,  he  presents  the  curious  aspect  of  a  mortal 
blindly  following  the  dictates  of  destiny  ;  for  he  can 
not  have  been  inspired  with  any  of  those  latent 
ambitions,  and  half-formed  conjectures  concerning 
distant  lands  which  probably  lurked  in  the  brain  of 
the  sailor  Columbus  for  many  years  before  all  achieve 
ment,  but  had  sought  Spain,  instead,  merely  as  an 
agent,  or  a  merchant  from  an  inland  city.  Hence 
the  ironical,  almost  humorous  circumstance  of  the 
fame  appertaining  to  him  of  having  been  crowned  as 
America's  godfather  by  an  acquiescent  world.  The 
believers  in  a  man's  lucky  star,  and  some  sort  of 
talismanic  good-fortune  as  attending  his  career, 
may  well  take  a  fresh  stimulus  of  credulity  in  the 
superstition  from  his  example.  Leaving  the  bank  of 
Arno,  Amerigo  Vespucci  only  groped  his  way,  inch 
by  inch,  like  the  rest  of  us  in  this  life.  Truly  he 
did  not  dream  of  what  the  morrow  might  have  in 
store  for  him. 

To  again  quote  the  frequently  abused  Bandini, 
who  is  nevertheless  the  chief  authority  consulted, 
Vespucci  was  in  Seville  in  the  year  1492.  Other 


THE   STRIKING   OF   THE    HOUR.  121 

accredited  research  affirms  that  he  first  dwelt  at 
Barcelona,  the  prosperous  port  and  animated  city, 
which  still  aspires  in  this  century  to  eclipse  all  rival 
Mediterranean  marts.  The  sojourn  of  a  stranger  at 
Barcelona  was  calculated  to  exercise  a  powerful  in 
fluence  on  the  most  obtuse  mind.  The  Spanish  port 
was  a  place  of  importance  even  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  contending  with  the  Italian  republics  for 
supremacy  in  the  lucrative  commerce  with  Alex 
andria  and  the  East,  of  drugs,  spices,  and  perfumes, 
to  be  diffused  through  Spain  and  Europe  beyond.  A 
spacious  city,  with  docks,  arsenals,  and  gardens, 
thronged  by  foreigners,  and  the  enterprising,  lively 
Catalonian  population,  responsive  in  movement  and 
temperament  to  all  the  quickening  impulses  of  the 
sparkling  sea,  Barcelona  boasted  of  her  consuls  and 
commercial  factories  established  in  every  port  of  the 
Mediterranean  and  northern  Europe,  her  legislative 
independence  controlled  by  bodies  of  counsellors, 
and  the  first  bank  of  exchange,  for  the  use  of 
foreigners  as  well  as  citizens,  founded  in  1401.  The 
famous  Consulado  del  Mar  claimed  to  be  the  most 
ancient  written  code  of  maritime  laws  in  use  in  tha 
Middle  Ages,  as  adopting  the  code  of  Khodes  which 
was  lost  in  the  mists  of  antiquity,  and  was  corrected 
at  Barcelona  in  the  year  900,  together  with  sixty  of 
the  decrees  of  Justinian,  when  the  town  belonged  to 
Charlemagne.  In  1266  further  modification  rendered 
the  code  the  judgments  of  Oleron,  which  served  as 
a  model  for  the  ordinances  of  Wisby  in  1400. 


122  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

We  like  to  tliink  of  Amerigo  Vespucci,  the  quiet 
Florentine  gentleman,  inhaling  a  hreath  of  the  sea 
at  Barcelona,  and  mingling  with  the  sailors  of  the 
quays,  listening  to  a  new  language,  and  lured  to 
fresh  fields  of  thought  and  ambition  by  the  tales  of 
adventure,  storms,  and  riches  of  those  who  go  down 
to  the  deep  in  ships.  He  may  have  imbibed  a  love 
of  the  ocean  by  lodging  in  the  sailors'  suburb,  called 
the  Barcelonette.  His  quest  of  the  merchant  may 
have  been  the  fine  fleeces  of  Catalonia  and  Aragon, 
in  which  Barcelona  had  an  extensive  trade,  especially 
with  England.  If  he  was  in  the  service  of  the  Me 
dici,  one  naturally  beholds  him  in  the  capacity  of 
banker  in  some  sort,  his  money-bags  filled  with 
Spanish  coin,  piastres,  reals,  and  maravedi,  the 
ancient  piece  used  by  the  Goths,  as  well  as  florins 
and  ducats,  the  current  medium  of  such  busy  marts 
of  exchange. 

Vespucci  went  from  Barcelona  to  Seville.  Proba 
bly  his  departure  from  the  populous  and  prosperous 
seaport  was  as  unnoticed  as  his  arrival  in  the  opu 
lent  city  on  the  borders  of  the  Guadalquivir. 

From  Florence  to  Seville !  What  a  contrast  in 
their  beauty  of  the  South  is  evoked  by  the  mind- 
picture  of  the  Italian  and  the  Spanish  cities  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  —  the  first  a  design  in  niello  work,  pure 
and  severe  in  the  outline  of  palace,  parapet,  and 
tower,  and  the  second  a  water-color  sketch,  glow 
ing  with  all  the  gorgeous  tints  —  yellow,  rose,  pur 
ple,  and  ashy-gray  —  of  a  palette  mingled  by  a  Turner, 


THE   STRIKING  OF   THE   HOUR.  123 

in  the  arabesque  designs  of  Moorish  architecture, 
and  the  delicate  fretwork  shadows  of  orange-trees 
on  marble  courts.  Florence  has  her  Campanile  of 
the  Church  of  the  Lily,  and  Seville  her  Giralda; 
they  form  a  gracious  sisterhood  of  towns,  crowned 
by  these  characteristic  belfries,  and  all  embalmed  in 
the  sunshine  of  mild  latitudes,  as  if  musing  over  the 
glorious  events  of  their  prime,  in  the  reveries  of  old 
age,  undisturbed  by  the  bustle  of  modern  activity. 

A  French  author  describes  Spain  as  one  of  those 
ancient  edifices  to  which  all  nations  have  brought 
their  tribute,  —  each  column  having  its  date,  charac 
ter,  and  school.  Different  races  of  the  "West  ruled 
in  the  Peninsula,  Eoman,  Goth,  and  Gaul,  by  turns 
conquering,  demolishing,  and  governing,  before  the 
Mussulman  hordes  of  Africa  landed  from  the  sea. 
Each  of  these  dissimilar  nations  left  the  seal  of  their 
rulo  stamped  on  the  population  in  customs,  beliefs, 
and  ambitions,  whether  of  war,  or  the  luxurious  idle 
ness  of  peace.  Not  less  happy  is  the  comparison  of 
an  English  writer  who  wishes  that  his  pages  may 
resemble  one  of  the  old  Spanish  cities  in  "  cool  walks 
shaded  by  orange-trees  along  the  banks  of  a  river; 
great  open  squares  exposed  to  the  burning  sun  for 
festivities ;  narrow,  winding,  dark  streets  composed 
of  houses  of  every  form,  height,  age,  and  colour; 
labyrinths  of  buildings  all  confused  together, — 
palaces,  hospitals,  convents,  halls,  market-places,  all 
resounding  with  the  busy  hum  of  men ;  cemeteries 
where  the  living  are  as  silent  as  the  dead ;  and  in 


124  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

the  centre  a  cathedral,  with  sculptured  portals  and 
capitals  of  varied  tracery,  its  deep  vaults,  its  forest 
of  pillars,  its  chapels,  multitude  of  saints,  and  high 
altar  lighted  with  hundreds  of  tapers.  Then  in 
another  quarter  of  the  town  the  vast  arch  of  an 
aqueduct  constructed  by  the  Romans,  or,  concealed 
by  a  grove  of  palms  and  sycamores,  the  ruins  of  the 
oriental  mosque,  with  the  domes  of  brass,  and  en 
amelled  pavements."  To  Amerigo  Vespucci,  in  quest 
of  fortune,  Iberia  may  have  been  still  more  embodied 
by  that  mountain  of  Udalach,  which  rises  in  a  pyram 
idal  form  to  dominate  Biscay  and  Guipuzcoa,  com 
posed  of  jasper,  veined  with  mines  of  iron  and  lead, 
and  covered  with  a  growth  of  fruit-trees  and  medi 
cinal  plants.  Curiosity,  and  the  keenest  incentive 
to  observation  of  novel  surroundings,  and  profiting 
by  such  opportunities  as  offered  in  a  foreign  land, 
would  assuredly  have  appealed  to  the  stranger  whose 
brain  had  attained  maturity  in  the  "subtle  air"  of 
the  Val  d'Arno. 

Spain  occupied  a  place  in  the  history  of  the  fif 
teenth  century  of  unique  interest  and  importance. 
Not  only  was  her  fate  interwoven  with  that  of  the 
neighboring  European  States  by  alliances  and  rival 
ries  with  France  and  Portugal,  or  wars  of  succession 
to  the  throne  of  Naples  and  Sicily  with  Italy,  but 
the  crowning  feat  was  accomplished  of  expelling 
the  Moor  from  her  soil  with  the  final  conquest  of 
Granada. 

The   nineteenth    century    has  ample   leisure,   in 


THE    STRIKING   OF   THE    HOUR.  125 

philosophical  mood,  to  deplore  the  crude  fanaticism 
of  the  Spanish  in  thus  exterminating,  as  far  as  pos 
sible,  the  Moor,  who  had  brought  to  the  land  of  his 
adoption  the  manifold  culture  of  Oriental  civilisation 
in  science  and  poetry,  accumulated  the  treasures  of 
Asia  and  Africa  in  silks,  rice,  saffron,  sugar-cane, 
dates,  bananas,  myrrh,  and  ginger,  while  planting 
the  apricot  and  other  useful  fruits  and  raising  in 
stead  the  standard  of  the  auto-da-fe,  enforcing 
compulsory  baptism,  as  well  as  the  expulsion  of  the 
Jews,  and  all  the  paralysing  system  of  the  Inquisi 
tion.  Posterity  has  the  result,  outspread  before  the 
eye  like  a  map,  in  the  impartial  records  of  history. 
"  Unfortunate  land  of  Spain,  stricken  since  Charles 
V.,  and,  above  all,  since  Philip  II.,  with  the  maledic 
tion  of  Heaven  in  expiation  for  the  blood  shed  in 
the  autos-da-fe,"  sighs  Charles  Didier.  "  Nothing 
succeeds, —  everything  has  degenerated  ;  she  has  lost 
successively  the  Low  Countries,  Italy,  Portugal,  the 
Americas  ;  she  has  no  more  commerce,  no  industries, 
no  marine  ;  science  and  agriculture  have  remained  in 
the  cradle,  public  education  is  null,  morals  are  de 
praved,  and  civil  virtues  unknown." 

In  the  day  of  Vespucci  the  first  flowering  of  a 
splendid  phase  of  the  Eenaissance  had  begun. 
Since  the  Saracenic  invasion  of  the  eighth  century, 
Spain  had  been  divided  into  petty  States,  hostile 
to  each  other,  and  only  became  blended  into  one 
race  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  under  the 
united  sway  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  —  much  as 


126  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

Germany  has  welded  together  her  separate  kingdoms 
for  the  sceptre  of  the  Hohenzollern,  and  Italy  fused 
her  duchies  to  the  single  rule  of  the  House  of  Savoy, 
in  our  day.  We  may  even  discern  an  analogy  be 
tween  the  primitive  system,  in  miniature,  of  the 
Hermandad  of  Castile,  the  Holy  Brotherhood,  a 
confederation  of  the  principal  cities,  bound  together 
by  oath  to  aid  each  other  in  civil  anarchy,  and  the 
Triple  Alliance  of  a  modern  day.  Doubtless  then,  as 
now,  the  Castilian  was  polished  in  manner,  enthu 
siastic,  ardent,  facile  to  receive  impressions,  and 
curious  to  learn  the  modes  and  customs  of  other 
lands  ;  the  Aragonese,  brusque  and  distrustful,  with 
excellent  qualities  of  character,  and  a  somewhat 
harsh  dialect ;  the  Andalusian,  a  Sybarite,  who 
esteems  himself  king  of  the  whole  world  if  given 
a  bewitching  lady-love,  an  orange,  a  guitar,  and 
the  sun;  the  energetic,  laborious,  and  independent 
Catalonian,  ever  ready  for  revolution ;  the  indolent 
Valencian,  the  Gascon  type  of  this  mixed  popula 
tion  ;  while  the  Asturians  and  the  Galicians  resem 
bled  the  drudging  Auvergnats  and  Limousins  of 
France.  Ambitious  Aragon  in  the  north,  severe  in 
outline  of  mountains,  reputed  veined  with  silver  and 
lead,  yet  blooming  with  wheat,  millet,  saffron,  and 
the  olive,  absorbed  Catalonia  and  Valencia,  and  con 
quered  Sardinia,  Sicily,  and  the  Balearic  Isles  in 
the  time  of  Vespucci.  No  less  emulative,  ancient 
Leon  and  Castile  had  awakened  to  the  impulse  of 
establishing  her  pre-eminence  over  the  whole  penin- 


THE   STRIKING  OF  THE   HOUR.  127 

sula,  and  imposing  her  language  as  the  current  coin 
of  speech,  holding  the  Asturias,  Galicia,  Estrema- 
dura,  Murcia,  and  the  long  line  of  Mediterranean 
coast  to  the  Bay  of  Biscay ;  and  Andalusia  sang 
and  dreamed  amidst  the  ripening  harvests  of  grape, 
citron,  and  fig,  amidst  the  dust-dried  foliage  of  her 
sultry  summertide ;  while  Granada  in  the  south 
basked  in  the  opulence  of  her  Oriental  palaces, 
fountain-cooled  courts,  and  public  baths,  —  subse 
quently  destroyed  by  Philip  II.  as  an  infidel  luxury, 
—  libraries,  and  schools  of  Arabic  learning,  vast 
systems  of  irrigation  and  agriculture. 

In  a  land  of  arid  wastes,  and  hills  clothed  with 
aromatic  plants,  thyme,  violets,  and  anemones,  gorse, 
the  crocus,  juniper,  cassia,  cactus,  ranunculus,  narcis 
sus,  hedges  of  pomegranate,  and  the  ever  fragrant  and 
wholesome  laurel,  associated  with  classical  rites  of 
household  cleansing  and  linen  perfuming  in  Southern 
countries ;  of  savage  contrasts  of  scenery,  from  the 
serrated  peaks  of  rocks,  touched  by  the  myriad  tints 
of  the  shadows  of  passing  clouds  in  a  transparent 
atmosphere,  and  the  drought-parched  channels  of 
streams,  to  the  rich  growth  of  palm,  orange,  and 
olive,  with  the  cork-tree,  when  spared  the  ruthless 
prejudice  of  the  peasant,  —  the  eye  is  dazzled. 

To  Amerigo  Vespucci  the  flocks  of  sheep  must 
have  possessed  peculiar  interest  in  connection  with 
the  industry  of  his  quarter  of  Florence.  Catherine 
of  Lancaster  is  reputed  to  have  brought  from  Eng 
land  some  merinos,  renowned  for  their  silky  fleeces, 


128  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

as  a  portion  of  her  wedding  dowry,  when  she  mar 
ried  the  heir  apparent  of  Castile.  These  herds  still 
afford  a  most  characteristic  feature  of  Spain,  and 
were,  from  an  early  date,  the  object  of  legislative 
solicitude  as  a  royal  prerogative  and  source  of 
wealth,  fostered  at  the  expense  of  husbandry,  —  the 
finer  breeds  living  in  the  open  air,  and  sleeping 
beneath  the  stars,  feeding  during  the  summer  months 
on  the  mountains  of  Leon,  Old  Castile,  Cuenza,  and 
Aragon,  and  descending  in  winter  to  the  plains  of 
La  Mancha,  Estremadura,  and  Andalusia.  Quaint 
chroniclers  place  stress  on  the  fact  that  the  sheep 
are  prevented  from  nibbling  the  dew-drenched  herb 
age  of  early  morning  hours,  and  drinking  melting 
hail-water,  —  possibly  for  the  same  reason  that  the 
children  in  Switzerland  are  warned  not  to  tempt 
pet  rabbits  with  lettuce  or  blades  of  grass,  chilled 
by  the  moisture  of  dawn,  lest  bunny  pays  the  pen 
alty  of  speedy  death.  The  worthy  mule  assuredly 
held  his  own  in  Spain  in  the  fifteenth  century  as 
sole  beast  of  burden  of  precipitous  paths.  He 
greeted  the  eye  of  the  recently  arrived  Florentine 
gentleman,  no  doubt  decked  with  gay  trappings  of 
red  and  yellow,  and  was  urged  onward  by  caressing 
names,  as  the  postilions  of  dilapidated  diligences 
have  guided  their  team  over  rough  highways  in  this 
century.  At  least,  the  mule  fetched  the  water  of  the 
river  Tagus  in  two  earthen  jars,  balanced  across  his 
back,  up  the  steep  streets  of  parched  Toledo,  in  the 
year  1492,  as  he  has  continued  to  do  long  afterward, 


THE   STRIKING   OF   THE   HOUR.  129 

—  the  altitude  of  the  city,  perched  on  a  granite 
height,  defying  all  hydraulic  appliances. 

The  Florentine  tapestry  of  the  fifteenth  century 
in  the  gallery  of  the  Via  Laura,  with  the  princes, 
soldiers,  ladies,  persons  of  distinction,  and  simple 
folk  gathered  under  the  canopy  held  by  falcons, 
finds  a  companion  design,  woven  of  the  warp  and 
woof  of  history,  in  Spain  and  Portugal  of  the  same 
period.  The  Iberian  fabric  lacked  the  manifold 
elements  of  art  and  poetry  of  the  Italian,  yet  pos 
sessed  the  richest  material  in  varied  arabesque 
design,  like  some  Oriental  stuff  mingled  with  the 
stouter  fibre  of  wool  and  linen  thread,  contrasting 
and  blending  in  the  pattern  of  conflicting  races, 
purposes,  and  religions,  with  their  consequent 
virtues,  crimes,  and  passions. 

In  the  dim  background  Roderick,  the  last  of  the 
Goths,  is  discernible,  a  tradition  resembling  a  fairy 
tale.  The  Gothic  king  found  in  the  enchanted 
Tower  of  Hercules  at  Toledo  a  casket  of  lapis- 
lazuli,  which  contained  a  folded  paper  with  designs 
of  men  in  turbans  drawn  on  it,  and  suffered  a  speedy 
downfall  from  the  revenge  of  Count  Julian,  the 
father  of  the  fair  maiden  Florinde.  The  heroic 
figure  of  the  Cid  appears,  dwarfing  all  contempora 
ries,  and  a  fading  host  of  early  poets,  compiling  a 
national  poetry  out  of  the  stores  of  narrative  lyrics, 
enriched  by  the  melody  of  Moorish  ballads,  as  well 
as  the  Troubadours,  fantastic,  wayward,  and  degene 
rating  to  the  jugglers  and  acrobats  of  the  streets, 
dancing  and  singing  the  weilles  rondes. 

9 


130  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

Alfonso  the  Wise,  of  Leon  and  Castile,  pores  over 
the  astronomical  tablets  arranged  by  the  astronomers 
of  his  age,  instructed  in  Arabian  schools ;  and  Moham 
med,  the  first  king  of  Granada,  schemes  to  encourage 
learning,  manufacture,  agriculture,  and  consolidate  the 
immense  population  flocking  to  his  domains.  Hidal 
gos  and  cavaliers,  Spanish  knights  and  chivalry, 
prepared  to  challenge  the  infidel  to  single  combat, 
ride  in  tournaments  on  caparisoned  steeds,  wearing 
rich  attire  and  flowing  mantles,  like  Suero  de  Qui- 
nofies,  who  jousted  for  thirty  days  in  honour  of  his 
fair  lady,  weighted  with  an  iron  collar  by  feminine 
caprice,  the  constable,  Davalos,  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  III.,  spurs  through  his  own  estates  from  Se 
ville  to  Compostella,  Alvaro  de  Luna,  the  powerful 
favourite  of  John  II.,  is  able  to  muster  twenty  thou 
sand  vassals  for  war,  —  a  valiant  company,  used  to 
martial  exercise,  and  proud  of  their  Gothic  descent. 
Members  of  the  Spanish  military  orders  are  dis 
tinguishable  in  the  throng,  founded  on  those  of  the 
Hospitallers  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  Templars,  after 
the  Crusades,  especially  that  of  St.  lago,  and  equally 
the  Spanish  Arab  associations  of  chivalry,  the  Mos 
lem  fronteros,  vowed  to  austerity,  and  to  die  at  their 
posts,  guarding  their  territory  from  the  Christian. 

The  varied  pattern  reveals  King  Henry  III.  of 
Castile  returning  home  to  his  palace  from  the  hunt 
to  find  no  supper  prepared  for  him,  because  of  his 
lean  exchequer,  while  his  nobles  feasted  with  the 
Archbishop  of  Toledo;  Peter  IV,  of  Aragon,  having 


THE   STRIKING   OF  THE   HOUR.  131 

convoked  an  assembly  at  Saragossa,  cutting  the 
document  of  the  Two  Privileges  in  pieces,  and  his 
own  hand,  as  well,  with  his  dagger ;  Don  Alfonso 
Perez  de  Guzman  throwing  his  weapon  from  the  walls 
of  Tarifa  for  the  besiegers  to  slay  his  own  child; 
Ferdinand  IV.  of  Castile,  named  the  Summoned 
because  he  died  thirty  days  after  the  execution  of 
the  brothers  Caroajals,  who  had  cursed  him;  and 
the  prisoner  Yusef  playing  chess  with  the  Alcalde 
of  Salobrena,  when  the  latter  received  orders  from 
the  usurping  brother  Mohammed  to  decapitate  the 
rival,  and  send  back  his  head  with  a  letter  by  the 
impatient  messenger,  —  a  command  frustrated  by 
blunders  in  the  game  until  delay  brought  two  cava 
liers  riding  post-haste  from  Grenada  to  announce  the 
sudden  death  of  the  wicked  kinsman. 

The  Spanish  character  is  deemed  frugal,  not  to 
say  avaricious,  to  this  day.  Behold !  a  king  of 
Aragon,  who  made  the  misers  of  his  kingdom  run 
a  foot-race  in  the  sun,  wearing  a  hat  of  massive 
gold,  and  carrying  two  quintals  of  coin  in  the 
pocket ;  and  in  contrasting  hues,  Don  Juan,  Count 
de  Melgar,  Admiral  of  Castile,  inviting  his  sovereign 
to  sup  in  a  grotto  of  his  garden,  which  was  decked 
with  a  foliage  of  vermilion  leaves  in  enamel  and 
metal,  with  pendent  bunches  of  fruit  of  sapphires, 
amethyst,  and  topaz ;  while  all  that  gay  company  of 
young  mediseval  nobles  wend  along,  the  Moorish 
cavalry  in  sparkling  armor  and  gorgeous  robes,  and 
the  Spanish  soldiers  with  attendant  pages,  lackeys, 


132  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

and  sumpter-mules,  the  trappings  of  their  steeds 
richly  embroidered,  and  lodging  in  silken  pavilions, 
furnished  with  vessels  of  gold  and  silver,  in  the 
camps  before  besieged  cities.  Here  Ibn-Hassaz, 
lord  of  Andalusia,  brings  to  his  court  the  silken 
stuffs  of  Egypt,  and  the  scimitars  of  Bagdad,  before 
the  Arabs  learned  to  temper  Spanish  steel  into  the 
armour  of  Toledo,  Almeria,  Murcia,  and  Granada ; 
and  here  the  Sultan,  Hakam,  perfumes  his  beard, 
with  the  insurgent  mob  of  Cordova  storming  the 
gates  of  his  palace,  while  planning  setting  fire  to  a 
distant  suburb  of  the  city,  and  cutting  down  the 
populace  thus  diverted.  Yonder  Don  Pedro,  in  the 
fourteenth  century,  indites  his  will  bequeathing  to 
his  son  his  sword  made  at  Seville,  and  ornamented 
with  gold  and  silver.  The  Persian  Ziryab  intro 
duces  to  Spain  the  culture  of  asparagus,  and  the 
making  of  forcemeat  balls  and  seasoning  of  a  fric- 
casee,  as  well  as  tuning  his  lyre. 

In  all  these  elements,  the  foundation  stuff  of 
obscure  men,  the  Hebrew  physician  studying  the 
virtues  of  Oriental  drugs,  and  medicinal  herbs,  Tal- 
mudic  lore,  cabalistic  mysteries,  and  with  kindred 
statesmen  attached  to  the  courts  of  different  sover 
eigns  ;  the  Arabian  philosopher  of  the  schools  of 
Cordova,  Toledo,  Barcelona,  and  Granada,  familiar 
with  the  Aristotelian  doctrines  and  meditating  on 
phases  of  experimental  science ;  alchemists  testing 
the  powers  of  the  crucible  to  make  gold;  and  the 
poets  of  the  type  of  the  Marquis  of  Villena,  who 


THE   STRIKING   OF   THE    HOUR.  133 

rendered  the  ^Eneid  into  Spanish,  Lopez  de  Mendoza, 
or  John  de  Mena  catching  the  rhythm  of  the  Jewish 
and   Moorish  muse,  —  are  discernible.     It  is  a  won 
drous  thread  of  life,  that  wrought  by  the  years  on 
the  fabric  of  Iberia  I    St.  Dominic  stands  forth  in  a 
community  where  Ignatius  Loyola  and  St.  Theresa 
would  arise  later;  and  Moslem  hermits  of  no  less 
holy  repute  in  their  sect  enjoin  on  their  disciples  to 
read  the  Koran  by  the  gleam  of  scented  torches  in 
shadowy  mosques,  while  in  the  tangled  web  of  human 
interest  royal  disputes  occur  with  Popes,  the  siege 
of  Gibraltar,  and  the  inheritance  of  distant  Sardinia 
and  Sicily.     The  middle  space  of    the  tapestry  is 
occupied  by  the  remarkable  figures  of   the   Count 
Henry  of  Burgundy,  and  his  famous  son,  Henriques 
of  Portugal,  —  that  hero  about  whose  memory  cling 
miraculous  legends  similar  to  those  embellishing  the 
fame  of  King  Arthur,  or  Charlemagne  ;  such  as  that 
fire  played  about  his  cradle,  and  left  him  unharmed 
in  infancy,  and  his  fighting  a  pack  of  wolves  among 
the  hills  of  his  native  country,  as  a  boy,  with  the 
courage  later  displayed  in  conflict  with  the  Saracen. 
In  the  foreground,  in  close  proximity  to  the  date  of 
Amerigo  Vespucci's  arrival  in  Spain,  are,  the  Inquis 
itor    Torquemada,   of    whom    a   French    historian 
laments  that  he  expired  peacefully  in  his  bed,  after 
occasioning  the  death  of  thousands  of  victims,  when 
the  most  generous  and  popular  of  French  monarchs, 
King  Henry  IV.,  perished  miserably  by  the  dagger  of 
an  assassin ;  Cardinal  Ximenes,  Archbishop  of  Toledo, 


134  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

with  keen  and  sallow  face,  reputed  the  greatest 
statesman  Spain  has  ever  developed  ;  Peter  Martyr, 
the  Italian  scholar ;  and  King  Ferdinand,  in  shining 
mail,  mounted  on  a  fiery  steed,  his  sword  only 
recently  sheathed  after  the  conquest  of  Granada 
and  the  final  expulsion  of  the  Moor  from  the  soil  of 
Spain. 

Place  aux  dames  !  Surely  that  spirit  of  masculine 
chivalry  towards  the  fair  sex  which  would  seem  to 
be  on  the  wane  amidst  the  active  competition  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  still  accords  to  Queen  Isabella 
the  central  space  in  the  Spanish  historical  fabric  of 
the  Middle  Ages.  Pronounced  by  Shakespeare  "  the 
greatest  of  earthly  queens,"  and  commended  by 
Bacon  as  "  an  honour  to  her  sex,  and  the  corner-stone 
of  the  greatness  of  Spain,"  the  fair  woman  with  the 
clear  blue  eyes,  mild  physiognomy,  and  reddish 
blond  hair  rides  her  Spanish  jennet,  attired  in 
royal  robes,  beneath  a  canopy  of  brocade,  and  sup 
ported  by  brave  knights,  the  Marquis  of  Cadiz,  the 
Duke  of  Medina  Sidonia,  or  Gonsalvo,  attired  in 
crimson  velvet,  who  gallantly  waded  into  the  water 
to  bring  his  royal  mistress  to  shore  from  the  boat 
after  the  fleet  had  sailed  for  Flanders  with  her 
daughter  Joanna,  as  a  bride,  and  preceded  by 
heralds  and  courtiers.  In  the  rear  gather  the  half- 
defined  semblance  of  a  kindred  sisterhood,  incom 
plete  in  their  fulfilment,  sinking  into  the  abyss  of 
violence  of  enemies,  petty  court  intrigues,  and  all 
the  reward  of  their  own  vanity  and  folly,  in  the 


THE   STRIKING   OF   THE   HOUR.  135 

lapse  of  years.  Donna  Theresa  of  Portugal,  a  woman 
of  fine  mind  and  enlightened  ambition,  neglecting 
her  son  to  lavish  preference  on  a  lover,  is  the  clearest 
portrait  of  'the  dim  company,  while  the  Sultana 
Zoraya  lowers  her  offspring  from  the  tower  of  the 
palace  by  means  of  silken  scarfs  to  evade  the 
jealousy  of  her  Greek  rival;  the  wife  of  Moham 
med  V.  of  Granada  disguises  him  in  the  garb  of  a 
female  slave  in  her  apartments  to  escape  the  enemy 
scaling  the  walls,  instigated  by  Abu-Said ;  and  the 
dusky  daughters  of  Beza  bringing  their  jewels  to 
aid  the  garrison,  closely  pressed  by  the  host  of  the 
Christians.  Queen  Joanna  of  Aragon  is  a  vigorous 
personality,  scheming  to  put  aside  her  popular  and 
ingratiating  stepson,  Don  Carlos,  in  favour  of  her  own 
child,  King  Ferdinand,  the  Catholic.  The  lustre  of 
heroism  in  this  group  is  obscured  by  the  central 
figure  of  Isabella.  Even  critical  and  pessimistic 
posterity  accords  the  noble  lady  homage  for  the  pru 
dence,  purity,  wisdom,  and  moral  firmness  in  adver 
sity  and  bereavement,  as  well  as  the  energetic 
ambition  of  her  character,  according  to  the  lights  of 
her  day.  Her  place  is  unique  in  the  history  of  the 
world  as  the  woman  to  whom  the  discovery  of 
America  must  be  ascribed.  How  glowing  the  tints 
of  the  tapestry  are  still,  in  the  Castilian  and  femi 
nine  enthusiasm  which  has  rendered  her  fame 
enduring !  Her  words  remain  inscribed  on  the 
tablet  of  the  century :  "  I  will  assume  the  under 
taking  for  my  own  crown  of  Castile,  and  am  ready 


136  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

to  pawn  my  jewels  to  defray  the  expenses  of  it." 
How  memorable  the  gratitude  of  Columbus,  ex 
pressed  in  the  letter  relative  to  his  third  voyage  : 
"  In  the  midst  of  general  incredulity,  the  Almighty 
infused  into  the  queen,  my  lady,  the  spirit  of  intel 
ligence  and  energy."  Amerigo  Vespucci  sought 
Seville,  and  formed  relations  with  a  Florentine  of 
the  name  of  Berardi.  The  latter  had  dwelt  in  Spain 
for  several  years,  and  was  commissioned  by  the 
crown  to  fit  out  the  craft  used  by  Columbus.  We 
are  again  reminded  of  Messer  Pitti,  and  his  encoun 
ter  with  fellow-countrymen  at  Paris,  Avignon,  in 
Flanders,  and  in  England,  during  his  travels. 

Seville  is  an  ideal  Spanish  capital  to  the  modern 
traveller.  Built  in  an  amphitheatre  on  the  dusty 
plain,  with  boundary  walls  attributed  to  no  less  a 
person  of  antiquity  than  Hercules,  and  then  to 
Julius  Caesar,  and  crenelated  by  the  successive  gen 
erations  of  Goths,  Moors,  and  Christians,  the  city 
stands  divided  into  two  groups,  and  crowned  by  the 
Cathedral,  the  Alcazar,  and  the  Giralda  Tower.  An 
ancient  town,  surrounded  by  olives,  hedges  of  aloes, 
and  pine-trees,  it  was  taken  by  the  Vandals  in  413, 
arid  the  Arabs  in  730.  When  Vespucci  reached  the 
portals  the  Moor  had  been  recently  vanquished,  and 
there  was  a  lingering  atmosphere  of  Oriental  per 
fumes  about  the  tesselated  courts,  with  their  vases 
of  roses  and  alabaster  fountains,  as  the  gold  and 
arabesque  tracery  of  Moslem  rule  still  adorned  the 
walls  of  chambers  shaded  by  the  interlacing  foliage 


General  View  of  Seville. 


THE   STRIKING   OF  THE   HOUR.  137 

of  orange-trees  in  adjacent  gardens.  During  the 
term  of  Vespucci's  sojourn  in  Spain  Seville  acquired 
an  ever-increasing  importance  in  the  development 
of  the  fifteenth  century  as  the  "Golden  Gate  to  the 
Indies,"  as  Valencia  was  christened  "  the  beautiful," 
and  Saragossa  "  the  abundant." 

The  Andalusian  town  owed  this  activity  to  the 
discovery  of  the  new  world,  and  the  fact  renders 
association  with  the  Florentine  gentleman  even 
more  interesting.  Fain  would  we  trace  his  move 
ments  there  more  clearly  in  knowledge  gained  from 
accurate  chronicler,  or  mere  discursive  gossip,  just 
as  we  should  like  to  know  more  of  his  earlier  years 
in  the  narrow  streets  of  the  Vespucci  quarter  of 
Florence.  There  was  no  Froissart,  De  Commines, 
Dr.  Pepys,  or  respectful  mediseval  Boswell  to  attend 
the  footsteps  of  Amerigo  Vespucci,  and  take  careful 
note  of  his  actions  and  opinions.  Fain  would  we 
follow  his  shadow  —  so  long  vanished — through  the 
tortuous,  whitewashed  streets,  with  the  awnings  of 
matting  spread  to  exclude  the  sun,  and  the  shops 
resembling  the  open  booths  of  Eastern  bazaars,  where 
Moors  sold  stuffs  of  gaudy  colours  for  the  national 
Mantas,  files  of  mules  jostled  pedestrians,  vendors  of 
water  uttered  their  shrill  cry  of  agua,  in  a  country 
where  the  natives  are  reputed  to  be  as  thirsty  as  the 
soil,  and  merchants  of  dates  and  sweetmeats  abounded. 

Old  women  peered  out  of  the  casements  of  crooked 
by-ways,  like  that  of  the  Caudelejo,  own  sisters  of  the 
crone  who  held  her  lamp  at  the  window  at  midnight 


138  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

to  witness  the  duel  of  cavaliers  below,  and  recognized 
the  victor  as  Don  Pedro  the  Cruel,  by  the  peculiar 
cracking  of  his  knee-joints.  The  idlers  gathered 
around  the  door  of  the  little  shop  of  some  earlier 
local  wit,  of  the  type  of  worthy  Manolito  Gazquey,  the 
velonero,  who  made  the  brass  lamps,  with  four  wicks, 
called  velon,  of  humble  households,  aided  by  his  no 
less  humorous,  crabbed  old  assistant.  His  meek  wife 
dwelt  upstairs,  and  was  occasionally  summoned  to 
fetch  water  to  a  parched  customer  in  a  carafe  of 
gold,  at  least,  while  an  excuse  for  the  lack  of  wares 
was  gravely  attributed  to  having  freighted  two 
frigates  for  America  with  the  useful  article  on  the 
previous  day.  A  gay  people,  fond  of  public  spec 
tacles,  with  the  ancestors  of  Figaro  on  every  thor 
oughfare,  and  the  ancestress  of  Rosina  leaning  on 
every  balcony,  veiled  in  lace  draperies,  with  a  rose 
in  her  hair,  —  the  first  lesson  of  feminine  childhood 
having  been  to  arrange  such  covering,  coquettishly, 
on  her  charming  head.  The  tinkle  of  the  guitar, 
an  instrument  introduced  by  the  Moor,  fell  on  the 
ear  of  Vespucci  in  the  starlit  nights,  fragrant  with 
jasmine,  bergamot,  and  acacia,  repeating  the  romance 
of  the  Cid. 

"  If  a  learned  man  dies  at  Seville,  and  they  wish 
to  sell  his  books,  they  take  them  to  Cordova,  where 
they  find  an  assured  market ;  if,  on  the  contrary,  a 
musician  dies  at  Cordova,  they  go  to  Seville  to  sell 
his  instruments,"  said  Averroes. 

Fain  would  we  dine  and  sup  with  Vespucci  on  the 


THE   STRIKING   OF  THE   HOUR.  139 

national  dishes  of  his  time,  which  furnished  the 
equivalent  in  human  alimentation  of  the  sauces 
deeply  dyed  with  saffron,  the  puchero,  the  Spanish 
pot-au-feu,  compounded  of  boiled  meat,  chick-peas, 
and  cabbage,  the  olla-podrida  of  game,  fowl,  and 
many  ingredients,  a  ragout  of  eggs,  snails,  and 
mushrooms,  or  the  sausages  flavoured  with  garlic, 
which  the  Spanish  King  Charles  IV.  found  so  deli 
cious  that  he  ate  thirteen,  without  bread,  at  a  meal, 
in  1788.  The  ducks  and  pheasants  of  Aragon,  the 
tunny-fish  from  Cadiz,  wood-hens  of  Murcia,  water 
melons  and  olives  of  Seville,  the  wines  of  Huesca, 
Saragossa,  Colmenar,  Alicante,  Raucio,  and  La 
Mancha,  and  bread  made  of  the  excellent  flour  of 
Andalusia  and  Valencia  (which  was  as  highly 
esteemed  as  that  of  Hungary  since  the  reign  of 
Joseph  II.  of  Austria),  must  have  furnished  the 
board  of  Vespucci.  He  did  not  partake  of  choco 
late  and  wafers,  flavoured  with  rosemary  or  aniseed, 
of  a  morning,  for  the  reason  that  cocoa  awaited 
discovery  in  America ,  nor  did  the  excellent  potato 
form  a  portion  of  his  nourishment,  —  that  gift  to 
hungry  Europe,  more  precious  than  gold,  brought 
by  the  Spaniards  from  the  new  world,  first  to 
Galicia,  and  thence  transplanted  to  France,  Germany, 
and  England.  According  to  the  Marquis  de  Langle, 
the  humble  vegetable  clearly  proves  the  beneficent 
supervision  of  a  God  who  intends  that  all  mankind 
shall  obtain  sufficient  food.  Also,  tobacco,  indigo, 
and  cocoa  were  unknown  during  the  reign  of  Isa- 


140.  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

bella.  although  cotton  was  planted  with  doubtful 
success,  and  the  brazil  wood  adopted  by  commerce 
for  the  fine  dye  yielded. 

Fain  would  we  linger  on  the  banks  of  the  famous 
Guadalquivir  with  Vespucci,  accustomed  to  his  own 
diminished  thread  of  yellow  Arno,  in  contrast  with 
the  broad  current  laving  the  walls  of  Seville.  The 
Guadalquivir  was  then  still  a  Moslem  stream,  signi 
fying  in  Arabic  the  "Great  River,"  which  issued 
from  the  Sierras  of  Segura  in  the  kingdom  of 
Murcia,  traversing  Andalusia  by  Baeza,  Andujar, 
and  Cordova,  trending  southward  to  Seville,  and 
thence  to  Lucar  de  Barrameda,  where  it  forces  the 
ocean  barriers. 

In  seasons  of  flood  the  river  is  ever  a  formidable 
enemy,  fed  by  tributaries,  such  as  the  Guadiana  and 
the  Zandulilla,  near  the  source,  with  some  currents  of 
salt  water  in  the  vicinity  of  Menxibar,  Marnolejo, 
and  Alden  del  Rio,  the  Lecobin,  and  the  Vivoras, 
near  the  old  bridge  of  Cordova,  the  Genii  having 
mingled  with  the  Darro  of  Grenada,  coursing  in  the 
vicinity  of  Palma  and  Ecija,  the  Gaudajocetto  and 
the  Carbones  descending  from  the  Sierra  de  Ronda, 
and  further  on,  above  Seville,  the  Guadaira.  On  the 
right  hand  the  Sierra  Morena  sends  the  majority  of 
his  springs  to  this  main  river,  which  is  not  navigable 
from  Seville  to  Cadiz,  although  attempted  even  by 
large  craft  in  favourable  years,  as  the  Romans  are 
supposed  to  have  tested  the  shallows  centuries  ago. 
Inundations  of  formidable  proportions  took  place 


THE    STRIKING   OF   THE    HOUR.  141 

in  1434  and  in  1485,  necessitating  carrying  a  piece  of 
the  Holy  Cross  in  processions.  Such  miracles,  re 
sulted  as  the  Madonna  of  a  house-shrine,  —  in  a 
modest  dwelling  being  swept  away  on  the  tide,  and 
floating  with  the  lighted  taper  un quenched.  The 
Guadalquivir  was  the  stepping-stone  of  Amerigo 
Vespucci  to  the  wide  realm  of  sea  beyond. 

The  Florentine  would  have  been  a  keenly  observant 
spectator  of  the  church  festivals  of  the  city,  the 
great  fete  of  the  Corpus  Christi,  when  the  houses 
were  adorned  with  hangings  of  silk  and  velvet,  as 
well  as  the  carnival  revelry  of  the  spring,  and  the 
theatrical  representations  of  annunciations,  birth, 
and  adorations,  which  were  earlier  autos  sacra- 
mentales  of  Lope  de  Vega  and  Calderon,  when 
Satan  may  have  already  appeared  as  a  fine  gentle 
man,  dressed  in  black,  with  blue  stockings,  red  slip 
pers,  a  perruque,  and  knots  of  ribbon  of  the  hue  of 
infernal  flames ;  baptism  was  personated  by  a  child 
in  white,  with  blond  curls ;  confirmation  was  a 
beautiful  lady;  penitence  a  maiden  clothed  in 
sheepskin ;  the  Sacerdotal  Orders  a  venerable  man 
with  long  white  hair ;  marriage  a  gallant  cavalier ; 
and  Faith  invariably  wore  a  crown  and  imperial 
mantle. 

The  annual  April  Fair  of  Mairena,  four  leagues 
distant  from  Seville,  on  the  road  to  Cordova,  was 
then  held,  the  Moors  having  early  organised  the 
mart  in  the  narrow  ill-paved  space  for  the  sale  of 
attar-of-rose  from  Tangiers,  dates,  and  babooshes. 


142  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

How  readily  we  can  picture  Vespucci,  mingling 
with  the  throng  of  mendicants,  shepherds,  and  deal 
ers  in  cattle  and  horses ;  the  Sevillians  and  peas 
ants,  and  the  Mayo;  the  country  dandy  of  the 
period  with  the  pretty  Maya  held  on  the  croup 
before  him,  the  couple  decked  with  silk  cords,  sil 
ver  buttons  and  velvet  embroideries,  his  carbine 
slung  at  his  side,  the  saddle  of  a  chair  shape,  and  the 
stirrup  of  the  large,  short,  Arab  pattern,  while  the 
steed  wore  trappings  and  pompons  on  the  head.  The 
ancestors  of  the  modern  Gitana  were  assuredly  there 
in  the  motley  crew  gathered  about  the  fire  of  aloes, 
where  the  matrons  fried  fritters  in  oil  for  the  chil 
dren  to  vend,  with  shrill  cries ;  the  old  hags  told 
fortunes ;  the  men  doctored  horses,  and  the  girls 
danced  fandangos  in  tawdry  finery  of  orange,  crim 
son,  and  blue.  A  strange  scene  was  the  Fair  of 
Mairena  of  discord,  music,  dust,  and  confusion; 
where,  as  the  night  came  on,  tents  were  pitched,  and 
most  of  the  company  supped  on  a  frugal  soup,  made 
of  garlic,  vinegar,  oil,  and  water,  with  slices  of  brown 
bread  in  the  dish,  —  the  whole  multitude  environed 
by  the  orange  groves  of  the  district,  esteemed  the  best 
in  Andalusia. 

Earlier  record  of  Bandini  states  that  Vespucci  did 
not  marry,  but  later  historians  affirm  he  espoused  a 
Spanish  lady,  Maria  Cerezo  by  name,  about  the  year 
1505,  when  he  took  up  his  abode  permanently  at 
Seville.  In  his  youth  he  strolled  in  the  Piazza  of 
the  Duomo  at  Florence,  in  the  pure  twilight  of  the 


THE   STRIKING   OF  THE   HOUR.  143 

evening  hour,  with  his  comrades,  and  exchanged 
greetings  with  the  maidens  already  decked  with  the 
strings  of  pearls,  and  the  garlands  of  Ghirlandajo 
the  silversmith,  so  ardently  coveted  by  feminine 
vanity ;  in  his  maturity  the  Andalusian,  the  ac 
cepted  type  of  all  grace  and  beauty  in  womanhood, 
smiled  upon  him  through  the  grating  of  the  entrance 
of  her  home,  as  she  passed  the  day  in  the  patio 
(court)  with  the  fountain  in  the  centre,  statues, 
palms,  bananas,  and  flowers. 

The  Spanish  ladies  wore  the  dress  very  long 
as  late  as  1680,  in  order  to  conceal  the  tiny  feet 
which  have  become  celebrated  as  a  national  feature 
of  beauty.  They  had  largely  developed  the  caprice 
for  perfumes  which  characterizes  the  modern  Par 
isian.  Their  garments,  furniture,  and  mattresses 
were  scented,  and  they  ate  musk  and  amber  in  addi 
tion  to  the  food  of  the  day,  which  was  spiced  with 
cloves,  cinnamon,  pepper,  and  ginger.  Did  Amerigo 
Vespucci  attend  those  mediaeval  reunions  of  Seville 
society,  now  known  as  the  tertulias  and  the  re- 
fresco,  when  large  glasses  of  fresh  water  were  served 
with  little  cakes  of  sugar  of  different  colours  and 
shapes  to  dissolve  in  the  beverage,  together  with 
biscuit  and  sweetmeats  to  the  company  ?  Was  that 
shadowy  person  of  history,  Maria  Cerezo,  one  of 
the  bevy  of  fair  damsels  who  imparted  gaiety  to 
the  hour  by  the  magic  of  the  dark  eyes,  song,  and 
laughter  ? 

One   cannot  help   wondering   if   our  Florentine 


144  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

gentleman  yielded  to  the  seductive  Spanish  custom 
of  taking  a  nap  in  the  hours  of  day.  The  lines  of 
the  poet  Herrera  may  possess  a  drowsy  influence  on 
his  countrymen :  — 

"  O  soft  sleep  I  —  thou  who,  in  tardy  flight, 
Slowly  agitates  thy  heavy  wings, 
Who,  crowned  with  poppies,  traverses  the  sky  I " 

This  habit  has  been  severely  condemned  by  viva 
cious  Gallic  neighbours,  and  no  excuse  allowed  for 
the  languor  of  a  warm  climate,  since,  if  the  Saracen 
and  the  Moor  nod  their  turbans  in  the  siesta,  the 
natives  of  the  shores  of  the  Red  Sea  are  far  too 
lively,  as  well  as  the  Caffres,  while  other  negro  pop 
ulations  are  said  to  sleep  little.  The  French  critic 
would  seem  to  be  in  the  right,  for,  in  the  language 
of  the  Bible,  want  has  come  upon  slothful  Spain 
like  an  armed  man.  Did  the  "wind  of  Medina" 
rasp  the  nerves  of  the  Tuscan,  like  the  sirocco  and 
the  tramontano  of  his  native  Val  d'Arno  ? 

The  sereno  (watchman)  then  perambulated  the 
streets  at  midnight,  a  picturesque  figure  in  his  man 
tle,  armed  with  lantern,  pistol,  and  lance,  prepared 
to  lead  Amerigo  Vespucci  to  his  domicile  as  a  bewil 
dered  stranger,  if  he  lost  his  way,  while  his  sonorous 
call  reassured  timid  souls.  In  the  literature  of  the 
land  the  watchman  has  his  characteristic  songs  as 
well  as  the  bull-fighter  (el  torero),  the  Gitana,  and 
the  orange-vender. 

The  cathedral  was  not  then  completed.      Begun 


THE   STKIKING  OF  THE   HOUR.  145 

in  1401  only  the  half-height  of  the  existing  walls 
had  been  attained  in  1462,  and  the  entire  edifice  was 
not  completed  before  the  sixteenth  century.  Ves 
pucci  may  have  traversed  the  little  square  which 
separates  the  church  from  the  tower  of  the  Giralda, 
now  planted  with  acacias  and  oranges,  but  no 
mellow  rays  from  the  coloured  glass  of  the  windows 
of  this  stupendous  pile  shone  down  on  him,  whether 
as  a  devout  worshipper,  like  Columbus,  or  a  mere 
philosophical  spectator,  in  an  interior  at  once  Gothic, 
Moorish,  and  Greco-Koman  in  architecture,  with 
every  century  represented  in  the  chapels ;  no  band  of 
acolytes  executing  mystical  symbolical  dances  in 
the  vast,  shadowy  aisles,  on  occasion;  no  tomb  of 
Ferdinand  Columbus  near  the  west  door,  adorned 
with  caravels,  carved  in  marble ;  and  no  great  Pascal 
candlestick  of  silver,  containing  the  candle  weigh 
ing  fourteen  hundred  pounds  of  wax,  twenty-one 
feet  high,  and  twenty-one  inches  in  diameter,  costing 
four  thousand  francs;  and  no  shrine  of  the  saint 
King  Ferdinand. 

The  fact  that  the  scaffold  of  the  Inquisition  was 
erected  outside  one  of  the  gates  of  Seville  for  the 
autos-da-fe  in  1482  was  calculated  to  render  pru 
dent  a  foreigner  dwelling  in  the  land,  like  Vespucci, 
even  as  later  travellers  might  be  reflective  that  a 
woman  was  here  burned  alive,  as  a  sorceress  capa 
ble  of  reading  the  future,  at  the  close  of  the  last 
century.  The  plague  visited  Seville  in  1481,  and 
swept  away  fifteen  thousand  victims. 

10 


146  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

Practically  considered,  Amerigo  Vespucci  had 
sought  Barcelona  and  Seville  to  make  his  fortune, 
much  as  the  modern  Briton  goes  forth  to  the  Antip 
odes,  and  the  American  to  the  great  West,  or  South, 
of  the  continent.  Seville  had  not  yet  become  the 
golden  gate  of  the  Indies,  although  the  prosperity  of 
the  town  was  notable  in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  according  to  the  native  historian  Zufriga. 
The  trade  was  in  domestic  fabrics,  and  the  coarse 
cloths  of  Castile,  and  natural  products  of  oil  and 
wine,  and  especially  the  wool  supplied  to  Italy, 
France,  Flanders,  and  England,  minerals,  dressed 
skins,  steel,  and  Spanish  horses  of  Arabian  breed. 
Granada  did  not  begin  to  weave  silk  with  thread 
brought  from  Naples  before  1500,  while  it  was  not 
until  the  development  of  the  sixteenth  century  that 
Segovia  made  fine  cloths  and  arms,  Valencia  and 
Granada  velvets,  Toledo  woollen  and  silk  goods, 
Valladolid  curiously  wrought  plate,  and  Barcelona 
cutlery  and  glass.  Vespucci  must  have  essayed  his 
chances  with  these  sinews  of  industry,  dealing  in 
merchandise,  either  as  a  financial  agent  of  the 
Florentine  bankers  or  in  his  own  interests,  and 
without  success.  The  key-note  to  his  future  is 
furnished  by  the  statement  that  he  formed  business 
relations  with  Berardi,  who  fitted  out  the  first  craft 
of  Columbus,  and  that  Vespucci  was  first  made 
acquainted  with  the  great  Genoese  by  this  means. 
Berardi  died,  and  Vespucci  succeeded  him. 

On  the  eve  of  the  eventful  vear  1492  Seville  rose, 


The  Giralda. 


THE   STRIKING    OF   THE   HOUR.  147 

a  fair  city,  on  the  banks  of  the  Guadalquivir,  the 
atmosphere  still  indolent  with  the  influence  of 
Moorish  rule,  as  of  a  beautiful  woman  reclining 
among  her  cushions,  sparkling  with  gems,  and 
enveloped  in  the  golden  tissues  of  the  East.  The 
Alcazar  had  been  recently  vacated  by  the  Arabs 
who  built  it  in  1181,  within  a  circle  of  high  walls, 
flanked  by  turrets,  and  not  yet  converted  to  the  uses 
of  a  prison.  The  presence  of  Abdelasis  and  of  Don 
Pedro  the  Cruel  remained  in  hall,  court,  and  bath. 
The  Giralda,  that  dream  of  the  artist's  fancy  of 
warm  colouring  in  the  sunset,  and  Moorish  grace  in 
light  arch,  column,  and  arabesque  casements,  pierced 
at  irregular  intervals,  soared  high  above  the  roofs, 
and  had  its  foundation  roots  stretching  beneath  an 
entire  quarter  of  the  town.  In  the  year  1000  the 
tower  was  begun,  the  architect  being  reputed  no 
less  than  the  Arab  Guever,  the  algebraist,  of 
square  cut  stone  the  height  of  a  man,  and  the 
remainder  of  brick.  Four  globes  of  gilded  copper 
surmounted  the  first  structure,  of  such  brilliancy 
when  the  sun  smote  them  that  they  were  visible 
for  eight  leagues.  The  globes  were  destroyed  by  an 
earthquake  in  1395.  In  1568  the  shaft  was  raised 
one  hundred  feet  higher  by  Fernando  Euiz,  adorned 
with  frescos  of  religious  subjects,  and  ultimately 
completed  by  the  statue  of  Faith,  the  revolving 
figure  holding  a  palm  in  the  hand,  christened  the 
Giralda.  The  tower  was  thus  converted,  baptized, 
and  placed  under  the  protection  of  the  two  sisters 


148  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

St.  Justina  and  St.  Rufina,  the  martyred  maidens  of 
Seville  ;  who,  vending  the  rude  vessels  fashioned  by 
their  father,  the  potter,  in  the  market-place,  refused 
to  sell  them  to  women  to  carry  incense  to  the 
temple  of  Venus,  and  were  killed  by  the  populace. 
To  the  painter  and  the  poet,  the  Giralda  is  a  mutinous 
slave,  captive  in  Christian  fetters,  especially  in  the 
evening  hour  when  the  moon  weaves  patterns  of 
shadow  and  light  on  wall,  orange-trees,  and  columns, 
as  fantastic  as  the  creeds  of  man.  At  such  moments 
the  echo  of  the  call  to  prayer  of  the  Muezzin  sounds 
from  the  airy  parapet  instead  of  the  bells  of  the 
arcades  ringing  for  the  angelus,  or  vespers.  In  the 
day  of  Vespucci,  the  four  bulbs  of  copper  so 
characteristic  of  an  Eastern  city,  with  its  mosques 
and  minarets,  had  fallen,  and  not  yet  been  replaced 
by  the  statue  of  Faith.  Don  Pedro  the  Cruel 
had  given  to  the  Giralda  the  first  clock  placed  on  a 
tower  in  Spain,  in  1400.  This  dial  marked  the  great 
event  of  the  century,  and  struck  a  memorable  hour 
for  Amerigo  Vespucci,  dwelling  in  the  town  below. 

Charlemagne  is  said  to  have  received  the  gift  of 
some  primitive  clock  from  an  Eastern  caliph,  while 
St.  Louis  noted  the  vigils  of  the  night  only  by 
means  of  burning  a  blessed  taper.  The  record  of 
passing  time  kept  on  the  dial  of  the  Giralda  is  inter 
esting  when  considered  in  the  phase  of  indicating 
the  moment  when  one  Italian,  Columbus,  beheld  the 
shores  of  an  unknown  continent,  and  another, 
Amerigo  Vespucci,  was  aroused  to  a  full  recognition 


THE  STRIKING    OF  THE   HOUR.  149 

of  the  importance  of  the  discovery,  for  the  reason 
that  Italy  boasted  of  having  first  set  clocks  in 
church  towers.  Lost  in  the  mists  of  an  earlier 
obscurity  clocks  were  mentioned  before  the  four 
teenth  century,  and  Dante  refers  to  them  in  his 
Paradiso.  Two  physicians  of  the  noble  family  of 
the  Dondi  of  Padua,  Jacopo  and  his  son  Giovanni, 
invented  complicated  mechanism,  and  the  race  re 
ceived  the  surname  dell'  Orologio.  In  1344  Jacopo 
Dondi  placed  a  clock  on  the  summit  of  the  tower 
of  the  Palazzo  Publico  of  Padua,  by  command  of 
Ubertino  of  Carrara.  The  son,  always  called  Gio 
vanni  degli  Orologi  (John  of  the  Clocks),  made  an 
instrument  described  by  some  writers  as  a  sphere  of 
the  sun's  movements,  planets,  constellations,  with 
their  distances,  and  circles,  and  wheels.  The  chron 
icle  is  curious :  — 

"  The  most  celebrated  astronomers  came  from  distant 
lands  to  visit  Maestro  Giovanni  and  the  work  of  his  hands, 
and  all  agreed  that  there  had  never  been  so  ingenious 
an  instrument  of  the  heavenly  bodies  as  this  clock. 
Maestro  Giovanni  made  it  with  his  own  hands,  of  copper 
and  brass,  without  the  aid  of  any  person,  and  did  nothing 
else  for  sixteen  entire  years." 

The  simple  clock  of  Jacopo  Dondi  on  the  tower 
of  Padua  has  been  confounded  with  the  great  sphere 
of  Giovanni,  which  was  at  Pavia.  The  sphere  was  so 
marvellous  that  after  the  death  of  the  inventor  no 
one  was  able  to  correct  it  and  adjust  the  weights, 


150  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

until  an  astrologer  and  great  artificer  came  to  Pavia 
from  France,  and  after  many  days  succeeded  in  set 
ting  the  wheels  in  motion.  Maestro  Giovanni  was 
attached  to  the  court  of  Gian  Galeazzo  Yisconti, 
who  gave  him  an  annual  stipend.  He  was  the 
physician  of  the  duke.  A  doctor  capable  of  adjust 
ing  so  many  wheels  must  surely  have  understood 
the  human  system. 

Columbus  had  obtained  his  letters-patent,  over 
come  the  first  obstacles  of  discouragement  and  delay, 
and  set  sail  from  Palos  on  Friday,  Aug.  3,  1492. 
He  had  discovered  land  on  Friday,  Oct.  12,  1492, 
the  day  of  the  week  dear  to  the  Emperor  Charles 
V.  and  the  Pope  Sixtus  V.,  who  had  been  born, 
made  a  cardinal,  and  crowned  Pontiff  on  Friday,  — 
a  preference  shared  by  Henry  of  Navarre,  and  Fran 
cis  I.  of  France.  Driven  to  take  refuge  in  the  Tagus 
by  stormy  weather,  on  his  return  in  the  spring  of 
1493,  Columbus  was  well  received  by  King  Emman 
uel,  aware  of  the  blunder  Portugal  had  made  in 
disregarding  his  projects  earlier.  The  Portuguese 
historian,  Faria  y  Sousa,  stated  in  disapproval :  — 

"The  admiral  entered  Lisbon  with  a  vainglorious  exul 
tation,  in  order  to  make  Portugal  feel,  by  displaying  the 
tokens  of  his  discovery,  how  much  she  had  erred  in  not 
acceding  to  his  propositions." 

Columbus  wrote  to  the  treasurer,  Sanchez,  from 
Lisbon :  — 

"Let  processions  be  made,  festivals  held,  temples  be 
filled  with  branches  and  flowers ;  for  Christ  rejoices  on 


THE   STRIKING   OF   THE  HOUR.  151 

earth  as  in  heaven,  seeing  the  future  redemption  of  souls. 
Let  us  rejoice,  also,  for  the  temporal  benefit  likely  to 
result,  not  merely  to  Spain,  but  to  all  Christendom." 

He  reached  Palos  on  a  Friday,  and  passed  through 
Seville  on  his  way  to  Barcelona,  when  every  balcony 
and  roof  of  the  former  city  was  crowded  with  spec 
tators  eager  to  behold  him.  The  clock  of  the  Giralda 
struck  the  hour  momentous  in  the  progress  of  the 
human  race.  Amerigo  Vespucci  listened. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE   FIRST  VOYAGE. 

ONE  day  the  idea  occurred  to  Amerigo  Vespucci 
of  joining  the  company  of  the  explorers.  The  fact 
is  incontestable,  or,  no  doubt,  the  Florentine  gentle 
man  would  have  been  robbed  of  it  by  a  host  of 
inveterate  detractors  in  the  lapse  of  centuries. 

Columbus  had  discovered  land,  a  western  margin 
of  Asia,  indeed,  as  all  Europe  believed,  but  accessible 
and  teeming  with  unexplored  riches  of  minerals, 
plants,  and  animal  life.  King  Henry  VII.  of  Eng 
land  pronounced  the  achievement  "  a  thing  more 
divine  than  human."  Peter  Martyr,  the  native  of 
Anghiera,  in  the  province  of  Milan,  who,  educated 
in  Rome,  had  gone  to  Spain  with  the  Spanish  ambas 
sador,  and  entered  the  service  of  the  king  and 
queen,  described  complacently  the  expansion  of 
knowledge  which  would  result  from  such  novel 
enterprises  in  a  letter  to  the  Cardinal  Sforza,  when 
previous  preparations  of  his  great  fellow-country 
man,  the  Genoese,  had  passed  unnoticed  by  him. 
Amerigo  Vespucci,  moved  by  the  general  sentiment 
of  enthusiasm,  the  schemes  and  dreams  of  all  Spain, 
turned  his  face  toward  the  sea. 


THE   FIRST   VOYAGE.  153 

The  act  evinced  a  degree  of  courage  which  merits 
respect,  as  well  as  ambition.  He  was  not  by  birth 
or  training  a  son  of  the  sea,  but  essentially  a  lands 
man,  a  merchant,  and  a  scholar.  However  much  of 
a  nautical  flavour  in  turns  of  expression,  from  long 
and  intimate  association  with  rough  Portuguese  and 
Spanish  sailors,  his  letters  may  have  subsequently 
revealed,  he  was  not  born  within  sound  of  the  waves, 
with  the  harvest  of  the  tide  in  shells,  tangled  weeds, 
and  strange  creatures  of  the  fishing-nets  for  play 
things. 

Bandini,  in  his  "Life  and  Letters  of  Amerigo 
Vespucci,  Nobile  Fiorentino,"  devotes  some  con 
sideration  to  elucidating  the  fact  that  much  corre 
spondence  had  taken  place  between  Vespucci  and 
Lorenzo  de  Pier  Francesco  de'  Medici  before  the 
departure  of  the  former  for  Spain,  and  especially 
to  a  missive  found  in  the  Medici  archives  of  the 
old  treasury  of  Florence,  stating  the  dishonesty  of  a 
business  agent  in  Spain,  and  seeming  to  suggest  that 
Vespucci  should  regulate  the  matter  by  personal 
investigation  of  a  house  of  commerce. 

In  one  of  these  communications  Lorenzo  charges 
Vespucci  to  sell  some  grain,  and  to  obtain  twenty 
soldi  the  staio  (a  bushel),  if  possible.  The  value 
of  the  florin  of  that  date  was  about  two  lira  and 
one  soldo  of  the  money  of  1789.  The  result  of 
these  transactions  must  have  proved  unsatisfactory, 
as  well  as  serving  in  the  shipping  business  with 
Berardi ;  and  Vespucci  decided  to  try  his  fortune  on 
the  ocean. 


154  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

One  muses  on  the  manner  in  which  the  novel  pro 
ject  came  to  him,  —  if  the  note  of  the  bells  of  the 
Giralda  smote  on  his  ear,  heralding  the  dawn,  or 
the  sonorous  voice  of  the  sereno  awakened  him 
from  wonderful  dreams  to  a  thrilling  conviction 
that  the  reality  was  more  marvellous  than  any  vision 
of  sleep  in  its  dazzling  possibilities  of  search.  Still 
more  probable  would  it  appear  that  he  had  listened* 
spell-bound,  to  the  tales  of  some  ancient  mariner, 
with  hands  like  the  ribbed  sea-sand,  who  had  made 
many  a  voyage  to  the  realms  of  Wonderland,  al 
though  the  very  existence  of  the  Western  Hemi 
sphere,  and  of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  was  unsuspected. 

In  the  full  noonday  light  of  the  present,  shed  by 
the  conscientious  researches  of  modern  historians, 
we  are  permitted  to  believe  that  Amerigo  Vespucci 
left  Seville  in  May,  1497,  and  passed  down  the  cur 
rent  of  the  Guadalquivir,  the  shores  bordered  with 
ancient  monasteries,  towns,  and  the  ruins  of  churches, 
all  embowered  in  oranges,  olives,  and  cypress-trees. 
Shepherds  tended  the  herds  of  bulls  wandering  over 
adjacent  plains,  while  sheep  browsed  on  the  little 
islets  of  the  stream,  now  resorts  of  a  midsummer 
holiday  trip  on  board  of  miniature  steamers.  A 
tower  rose  above  the  town  of  Lebrija,  the  ancient 
Nebrissa,  the  birthplace  of  Juan  Diaz  de  Solis,  the 
discoverer  of  the  Eio  de  la  Plata,  as  well  of  the 
grammarian  Antonio  de  Ldbrija,  who,  in  the  six 
teenth  century  discovered  unknown  realms  of  lan 
guage.  Flocks  of  wild  geese  flew  across  the 


THE  FIRST   VOYAGE.  155 

lowlands,  and  the  first  sea-birds  swept  near  Vespucci, 
as  if  to  bring  him  a  welcome  from  the  wild  and  free 
element  they  haunted.  The  dismantled  castle  of 
the  Espiritu  Santo  marked  the  bar  of  the  river  in 
the  line  of  rocks  which  require  skilful  pilotage  to 
pass,  and  beyond,  the  port  of  San  Lucar  de  Barra- 
meda  at  the  entrance  of  the  Guadalquivir  into  the 
ocean.  This  haven  is  ever  famous  in  the  history  of 
Spain  as  the  place  of  embarkation  of  Columbus  on 
his  third  voyage  on  May  30,  1498,  whither  he 
returned  in  1504.  Fifteen  years  later,  in  September, 
1519,  Magellan,  dissatisfied  with  the  conditions  im 
posed  by  his  own  sovereign,  the  King  of  Portugal, 
and  having  been  favourably  received  by  the  Emperor 
Charles  V.,  departed  hence  with  five  ships,  and  thir 
teen  months  afterward  traversed  the  straits  bear 
ing  his  name  at  the  southern  extremity  of  the 
American  continent,  only  to  die  in  the  Philippine 
Islands,  and  that  single  vessel,  "  La  Noa  Vittoria  " 
to  return  to  San  Lucar,  commanded  by  Sebastian 
del  Cano,  having  circumnavigated  the  globe.  Fur 
ther  along  the  coast  the  women  of  Cadiz  gazed 
westward  from  their  balconies,  type  of  their  city, 
which  has  been  compared  with  a  ship  of  stone, 
anchored  in  the  ocean,  the  store-house  of  all  trade 
with  the  new  world  until  such  time  as  commerce 
should  ebb  away  to  Malaga.  In  the  fifteenth  cen 
tury,  as  in  the  nineteenth,  the  Bay  of  Cadiz  was 
environed  by  such  renowned  sites  as  Puerto  Real, 
connected  by  a  road  through  pine-trees  with  Puerto 


156  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

Santa  Maria,  the  harbour  mentioned  by  Ptolemy, 
taken  from  the  Arabs  by  Alfonso  the  Wise,  and 
later  given  to  the  Genoese  admiral,  Benedetto  Zach- 
arias  by  Don  Sancho  IV.  in  1284,  in  return  for 
placing  an  armed  galley  at  his  disposal,  and  again 
accorded,  in  1306,  as  a  dowry  to  Leonora  Perez  de 
Guzman,  when  she  married  Louis  de  la  Cerda, 
Duke  of  Medina  Coeli.  Vespucci  may  have  been 
saluted  by  the  terrible  levante  of  the  ocean,  blowing 
clouds  of  dust  inland,  at  Puerto  Santa  Maria,  now  a 
summer  resort,  with  a  theatre,  an  arena  for  bull 
fighting,  and  a  parish  church  adorned  with  jasper 
and  rich  marbles.  For  the  rest,  he  found  a  sparse 
population  of  fishermen  scattered  around  the  bay, 
and  the  remains  of  early  towns  founded  by  the 
Phoenicians,  visited  by  the  Greeks  and  Romans, 
seized  by  the  Moors,  wrested  from  the  latter  by  the 
Spaniards  from  time  to  time,  as  well  as  subsequently 
stormed  by  English  and  French  armies.  Thence 
hedges  of  aloes  and  the  figs  of  Barbary  stretch  in 
the  direction  of  the  vineyards  of  Jerez ;  and  the 
children  of  Chiclana,  the  country  of  the  bravest 
toreadores  of  Andalusia,  are  reared  to  manage,  taunt, 
and  elude  cattle.  The  laughter  and  song  of  a  South 
ern  race  echoes  from  every  garden  nook,  as  when 
the  poet  Cadalso  tuned  his  lyre  thus:  — 

"  We  furnish  for  national  defence  our  horses  of  Betis, 
the  iron  of  Cantabria,  and  the  old  blood  of  the  Goths,  at 
the  command  of  the  king.  Cadiz  has,  to  rejoice  her,  deli 
cate  fresh  fish  from  the  shores  of  two  seas,  and  the 


THE   FIEST   VOYAGE.  157 

treasures  poured  by  Bacchus  on  Jerez,  Malaga,  Peraltra, 
Tudela,  and  La  Marca.  Come,  joyously,  shepherds  and 
shepherdesses!  Tune  your  bagpipes,  guitars,  tambou 
rines,  castanets,  and  Basque  drums  !  Youths  and  maidens, 
mingle  the  wine,  bring  forth  the  hams  of  Galicia,  the 
sausages  of  Biscay,  and  the  fruits  of  Seville  and  Aragon  ! " 

Amerigo  Vespucci,  journeying  down  the  Guadal 
quivir  to  the  sea,  may  be  accepted  as  one  of  the 
elements  in  the  vast  movement  of  the  migration  of 
races,  driven  forth  by  the  famine  of  a  pinching 
drought,  or  the  floods  induced  by  too  abundant  rains, 
as  well  as  the  steady  pressure  of  increasing  popula 
tions.  Dim  traditions  of  the  Celts  forcing  the  Ibe 
rians  to  yield  them  Gaul,  of  the  Slavs  and  Letts 
emerging  from  the  southeast  to  settle  on  the  banks 
of  the  Oder  and  the  Vistula;  the  advent  of  the 
Etruscans  in  Central  Italy,  as  of  the  Jutes,  Saxons, 
and  Angles  to  Britain,  the  Phrygians  and  Armenians 
crossing  the  Bosphorus,  and  the  Bulgarians  impelled 
toward  the  shores  of  the  Danube  by  the  inhospita 
ble  cold  of  the  middle  Volga,  found  another  thread 
in  this  launching  forth  on  the  Atlantic  Ocean  from 
Spain  in  search  of  distant  shores.  Vespucci  could 
not  have  grasped  the  magnitude  of  his  mission,  any 
more  than  did  Columbus.  The  timid  and  disaffected 
crews  of  the  voyage  of  the  Santa  Maria,  Nina,  and 
Pinta,  pressed  into  the  service  of  a  visionary  for 
eigner  by  orders  of  the  Crown,  were  already  suc 
ceeded  by  the  eager  adventurers  flocking  to  the 
different  ports  to  enlist  in  search  of  fortune. 


158  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

The  tide  of  emigration  began  to  flow  toward 
America  with  those  first  cockle-shell  craft,  —  the 
Spaniards  to  South  America,  and  the  British  to 
North  America  and  Australia,  as  instinctively  as 
the  Scandinavians  to  the  States  of  Wisconsin  and 
Minnesota,  or  the  Icelanders  to  Manitoba.  To 
the  day  of  Vespucci  belonged  the  cavaliers,  —  the 
brilliant  gentlefolk,  ready  to  pawn  their  estates  for 
armour  and  other  military  appointments,  pent  up  in 
inactivity  by  the  close  of  the  Moorish  conquest, 
while  the  campaign  of  Sicily  and  Naples  had  not 
yet  tempted  them  to  again  unsheathe  their  swords, 
and  win  fresh  laurels  of  glory  under  the  great 
captain  Gonsalvo.  The  romance  of  the  European 
exodus,  the  knights  of  the  Ponce  de  Leon  fibre, 
dreaming  of  the  fountain  of  youth,  or  the  soldiers 
of  the  type  of  Cortez  and  Pizarro,  hastening  to 
the  standard  of  conquest,  has  faded,  become  sadly 
tarnished,  as  the  stream  has  gathered  strength  and 
volume  in  the  prosaic  hordes  of  the  sons  of  labour, 
uniform  in  tint,  carried  with  mechanical  punctuality, 
of  the  steamers  plying  from  the  ports  of  Great 
Britain,  France,  and  Germany  to  New  York,  or  from 
the  Mediterranean  to  Buenos  Ayres  and  Brazil. 

Could  we  turn  back  a  page  of  history,  and  note 
the  equipping  of  Vespucci's  ships,  we  should  be 
deeply  interested  spectators.  All  those  tiny  vessels 
must  be  esteemed  by  an  American  with  reverence 
for  the  mighty  task  they  accomplished.  We  place 
them,  poised  on  the  rude  waves,  between  those 


THE   FIRST   VOYAGE.  159 

first  conveyances  constructed  by  man,  —  the  raft  of 
sticks  loosely  bound  together,  or  the  trunk  of  a  tree 
hollowed  out  with  the  aid  of  fire  into  a  boat,  as 
natural  development  of  his  instinct  to  follow  the 
course  of  the  waters  in  trade  and  fisheries,  —  and  the 
stately  ship  full-rigged,  the  swift  American  clipper 
of  the  Chinese  tea  traffic  of  a  past  generation,  and 
the  iron  steamship  of  Liverpool  and  Havre,  or  the 
latest  corvette  of  war  built  at  Spezia.  The  Mediter 
ranean  galleys,  furnished  with  slender  masts,  and 
long,  tapering  yards  hanging  obliquely  from  them, 
low  hull,  triangular  sails,  pointed  head,  and  stern 
narrowed  to  a  mere  span's  breadth,  with  a  single 
tier  of  oars,  were  well  adapted  for  inland  waters. 

In  1411  the  Portuguese  had  made  progress  in  ship 
building  by  constructing  larger  craft,  rising  higher 
out  of  the  water  than  the  galley,  and  chiefly  pro 
pelled  by  the  wind,  with  three  or  four  masts,  and 
square  sails,  the  shrouds  brought  down  to  the  sides 
of  the  vessel,  thus  giving  stability.  The  mainmast 
had  a  top  capable  of  holding  two  men,  a  bowsprit 
was  added,  a  deck  was  laid,  which  enabled  the  ship 
wright  to  stow  away  more  conveniently  the  cargo  and 
provisions,  and  make  accommodation  for  the  crew. 
The  caravel  acquires  a  precedence  of  fame  because 
preferred  by  Columbus  as  best  adapted  to  the  explo 
ration  of  shallow  inlets  and  tortuous  channels  of 
the  shores  of  Asia.  The  caravel,  usually  undecked, 
or  half-decked,  was  built  up  at  the  prow  and  the 
stern  in  castles,  or  cabins,  and  boasted  a  forecastle. 


160  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

A  sentiment  of  sympathy  is  induced  by  the  recol 
lection  of  the  struggles  of  these  gallant  little  vessels 
to  rivet  the  bonds  binding  the  earth  together,  — 
struggles  almost  human,  in  the  effort  to  overcome 
baffling  winds,  and  ride  out  the  storms. 

To  that  fleet  belong  the  caravel  of  fifty-two  tons 
burthen,  with  a  crew  of  thirty-three  souls,  fitted  out 
by  the  Seville  merchant,  Luis  Guerra,  on  condition 
that  his  brother,  Christoval  Guerra,  should  be 
given  command ;  the  vessel  of  the  younger  Pinzon, 
wrecked  in  a  hurricane,  and  the  very  timber  dragged 
across  the  mountains  of  the  Isthmus  of  Darien  by 
the  indomitable  Vasco  Nunez  and  his  followers  to 
build  the  first  brigantine  launched  on  the  further 
Pacific  shore,  —  only  to  prove  unfit  for  the  purpose, 
as  worm-eaten  from  growing  too  near  the  sea ;  as 
well  as  the  pathetic  wreck  of  Columbus,  beached  on 
an  inhospitable  shore  to  await  aid  from  the  first 
colony,  and  the  crippled  flotilla  of  Magellan  thread 
ing  the  straits.  How  were  they  provisioned,  those 
ships  of  Palos  and  San  Lucas,  in  comparison  with 
the  abundance  of  the  present  day  ?  When  did  an 
enlightened  world  begin  to  make  hard  biscuit  for 
the  sailors  ?  At  what  date  did  the  Mediterranean 
crews,  those  men  of  copper  and  bronze,  who  have 
imbibed  the  sun  of  Africa  from  their  boyhood,  ac 
cording  to  Michelet,  put  the  first  kettle  of  maccaroni 
on  the  fire  ?  The  voyagers  of  the  time  mention  the 
indispensable  water-casks,  replenished  at  the  islands 
of  the  Canaries,  and  at  the  springs  of  West  Indian 


THE  FIRST  VOYAGE.  161 

shores,  where  the  Indians  pointed  their  arrows  at 
the  harassed  mariners  from  the  shadow  of  palm- 
trees.  Also  wine,  oil,  vinegar,  and  pulse  are  enu 
merated  at  one  time ;  bacon,  cheese,  and  biscuit  on 
another  occasion;  while  of  the  fare  of  Magellan's 
seamen,  Shakespeare  leaves  no  doubt  in  the  quaint 
description :  — 

"And  having  in  this  time  consumed  all  their  biscuit 
and  other  victuals,  they  fell  into  such  necessity  that  they 
were  forced  to  eat  the  powder  thereof.  .  .  .  Their  fresh 
water  was  also  putrefied,  and  become  yellow.  They  did 
eat  skins  and  pieces  of  leather,  which  were  folded  about 
certain  great  ropes  of  the  ships." 

More  picturesque,  if  scarcely  less  terrible,  was  the 
hunger  that  frequently  overtook  the  early  naviga 
tors  on  reaching  America,  where  an  adequate  supply 
of  cassava  bread  for  the  ships  was  not  always  ob 
tainable,  and  bands  wandered  in  the  forest  to  gather 
fruit  and  roots,  much  as  Stanley's  camp  has  recently 
survived  in  Africa. 

When  the  vessels  sought  a  port  for  water,  they 
laid  in  a  store  of  wood,  in  addition,  from  which  we 
must  infer  that  our  cavaliers  of  the  fifteenth  century 
added  a  cook  and  his  galley  to  the  pilot,  astronomer, 
carpenter,  and  physician  of  the  equipment. 

The  surprising  feature  of  these  preparations  for 
long  voyages  of  doubtful  issue  is  the  live  stock. 
How  did  Columbus  stow  away  the  calves,  goats, 
sheep,  eight  hogs,  and  fowls,  taken  to  Hispaniola 
on  his  second  voyage  ?  How  did  Amerigo  Vespucci 

n 


162  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

and  Ojeda  transport  the  Spanish  horses,  fed  on 
barley  like  the  steeds  of  the  Arabs  and  Komans, 
destined  to  overawe  the  Indians  ?  Sufficient  space 
there  must  have  been  for  the  hoard  of  mirrors, 
combs,  hawk's  bells,  and  other  trinkets  used  in 
barter  with  the  savages  for  their  gold-dust  and 
pearls,  while  sea-chests  and  other  articles  of  furni 
ture  must  have  contained  clothing ;  for  a  Moorish 
robe  untouched  since  leaving  Spain  is  mentioned  in 
one  of  these  records.  With  all  possible  respect  for 
the  lofty  aim  of  Columbus,  and  unswerving  pur 
pose  in  setting  sail  to  discover  a  new  world,  we 
must  not  forget  that  neither  the  great  navigator, 
his  contemporaries,  nor  immediate  successors,  had 
a  very  clear  comprehension  of  what  they  were 
doing.  Would  they  have  ventured  forth  so  confi 
dently  with  horses,  primitive  artillery,  and  armour, 
had  they  fully  realised  the  perils  of  wind  and 
tempest  ? 

Columbus  had  reasoned  thus  :  Holding  the  princi 
ple  as  fundamental  that  the  earth  is  a  globe,  he 
divided  the  circumference  from  east  to  west,  accord 
ing  to  Ptolemy,  into  twenty-four  hours  of  fifteen 
degrees  each.  Comparing  the  globe  of  Ptolemy 
with  the  earlier  map  of  Martin  of  Tyre,  he  ima 
gined  that  fifteen  hours  had  been  known  to  the 
ancients  as  extending  from  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar, 
or  the  Canary  Isles,  to  the  city  of  Thina?  in  Asia,  the 
limit  of  the  world.  The  Portuguese  had  advanced 
the  western  frontier  by  the  discovery  of  the  Azores, 


THE   FIRST   VOYAGE.  163 

and  the  Cape  Verde  Islands  one  hour  more.  There 
remained  eight  hours,  or  one-third  of  the  periphery 
of  the  earth  unexplored.  The  eastern  regions  of 
Asia  might  fill  up  this  space,  and  approach  the 
western  shores  of  Europe  and  Africa. 

Amerigo  Vespucci  sailed  as  pilot  and  cosmographer 
of  the  expedition  "at  the  expense  of  the  king," 
despatched  on  May  10,  1497,  of  which  Vincente 
Tanez  Pinzon  was  in  command,  and  Solis  second 
officer.  The  ocean  awaited  Vespucci,  and  we  may 
reasonably  infer  that  the  element  was  more  to  him 
than  to  the  French  gourmet,  as  the  domicile  of  the 
turbot,  cod,  and  sardine,  and  the  nursery  of  the 
oyster.  He  was  the  pilot,  and  therefore  always 
alert  with  eye  and  hand,  whether  afloat  or  ashore, 
to  observe  the  clearness  of  the  atmosphere  and  the 
formation  of  fogs  alike,  the  luminous  phenomena  of 
mirage,  rainbow,  solar  and  lunar  halos,  reflections 
and  refractions  innumerable. 

Lieutenant  Maury  had  not  been  born  to  determine 
the  direction  of  currents  and  of  prevailing  winds, 
according  to  the  seasons,  and  define  the  laws  of 
harmony  in  air  and  water,  the  elements  distributing 
heat,  dryness,  and  humidity  through  the  world, 
created  by  superabundance  of  rain  on  the  surface 
of  the  sea,  the  melting  of  ice,  and  the  conflict  of 
electrical  tides.  The  Atlantic  was  a  great  school 
master  to  America's  godfather,  because  of  his  own 
intelligence  and  previous  education,  rather  than  the 
capricious  siren  of  the  poet's  fancy,  moved  to  caress, 


164  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

frown,  and  destroy  a  victim  in  all  the  varying  moods 
of  calm  and  storm.  By  day  his  eye  was  charmed 
by  the  variety  of  colour,  the  limpid  transparency  of 
waters  suggestive  of  coral  reef  and  sand,  the  yellow 
and  turbid  tide  denoting  the  channel  of  great  rivers, 
the  fitful  changes  wrought  by  gales  in  the  pallid 
hues  of  polar  ice,  or  the  sunset  fires  resembling  the 
rosy  clouds  of  the  vicinity  of  the  equator,  and  the 
red  wavelets  of  the  Gulf  of  Arabia.  By  night  his 
spirit  was  awed  by  the  study  of  the  stars,  which 
moved  the  Portuguese  and  Spanish  sailors  to  a  super 
stitious  reverence  of  the  Creator  of  the  firmament, 
the  gleam  of  the  crescent  moon  touching  faintly  the 
heaving  billows  of  wide,  trackless  wastes,  and  the 
palpable  darkness  of  midnight,  when  a  waterspout 
may  be  advancing  in  the  path  of  a  vessel,  unseen 
and  with  a  ghostly  swiftness  of  motion.  For  him 
was  performed  that  witches'  dance  of  the  phosphor 
escent  life  of  the  surface  as  the  twilight  deepened, 
—  pyrosoma,  salpa,  medusa,  gleaming  through  the 
waves  in  serpentine  mazes  of  light,  soft  white, 
sulphurous  yellow,  opalescent,  in  fiery  disks  and 
balls  of  green  and  blue.  The  winds  waited  for  him, 
like  hounds  held  in  leash,  —  the  mistral  and  sirocco 
of  the  Mediterranean,  succeeded  by  the  hurricane 
of  the  Antilles,  the  pampero  of  the  shores  of  La 
Plata,  —  while  the  typhoon  slumbered  in  more  dis 
tant  Indian  and  Chinese  seas,  and  the  tornado  lurked 
near  the  coasts  of  Guinea  and  Senegal. 

Further  on  his  course  the  Gulf  Stream,  as  king  of 


THE   FIRST   VOYAGE.  165 

storms,  fulfilled  its  mighty  mission  of  sweeping 
tropical  waters  to  boreal  regions,  bearing  the  seeds 
and  wood  of  the  Antilles  to  Norway,  Ireland,  or  the 
Canaries,  by  means  of  a  rotation  of  currents  on  the 
coasts  of  Veragua  and  Honduras,  and  the  return 
toward  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  between  Cape  San 
Antonio  and  Cape  Catoche.  The  atmosphere  and 
the  water  environed  him,  and  the  birds  piped  their 
harsh  note  of  greeting.  Did  the  frigate  bird,  soar 
ing  on  wide-spread  pinions  above  the  fretting  storm- 
clouds  of  intertropical  regions,  discern  the  little  craft 
bearing  Amerigo  Vespucci  to  another  hemisphere, 
with  the  keen  eye  capable  of  seeing  the  flying-fish 
at  a  giddy  height  ?  If  so,  it  is  probable  that  the 
momentous  voyage  was  viewed  with  the  sublime 
ornithological  indifference  to  the  affairs  of  men  of 
which  the  bird  alone  is  capable  in  the  scale  of  crea 
tion  ;  and  the  interest  of  this  monarch  of  the  air 
turned  far  more  readily  to  certain  rocky  islets  of 
Brazil,  Timor,  and  the  Moluccas,  where  a  nest  could 
be  made  in  the  month  of  May  of  small  branches 
and  twigs,  cut  a  suitable  length  by  means  of  the 
long,  keen  beak,  firmly  interlaced,  and  suspended  on 
a  tree  inclining  toward  the  water,  wherein  lay  two 
or  three  eggs.  The  petrel  surely  haunted  his  course, 
skimming  the  curling  spray  of  the  waves  for  marine 
tid-bits,  and  justifying  the  French  name  of  Petit 
Pierre,  in  traditional  emulation  of  St.  Peter's  miracle 
of  walking  on  the  sea. 

Of  all  the  feathered  tribe  the  petrel  most  reminds 


166  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

us  of  the  modern  woman,  unwearied  in  flight,  dip 
ping  into  every  ripple,  whether  social,  religious, 
philosophical,  or  scientific,  snatching  a  moment  of 
repose  with  head  tucked  under  the  wing  occasion 
ally,  and  seldom  at  home.  When  the  petrel  fulfils 
her  destiny,  and  retires  to  a  cleft  in  the  rock  to 
deposit  one  large  white  egg,  and  subsequently  feed 
her  nestling  with  the  secretion  of  oil  in  the  stomach 
which  renders  the  species  so  valuable  to  the  poor 
inhabitants  of  Austral  lands,  to  convert  into  candles, 
or  thrust  a  stick  through  the  body  and  burn  as  a 
torch  in  the  Faroe  Islands,  her  curious,  brooding 
note  may  be  a  protest  against  irksome  domestic 
duties  in  the  longing  to  keep  committee  appoint 
ments  with  the  gathering  tempests  of  mid-ocean, 
and  whirl  about,  a  mere  handful  of  little  feathers, 
in  the  eddies  of  some  novel  theory  of  existence. 

Those  vagabonds  of  the  sea,  the  gulls,  circled 
about  Vespucci,  greedily  intent  on  obtaining  food, 
cowards  alert  to  profit  by  any  opportunity,  and 
resembling  in  characteristics  only  too  much  the 
crew  of  adventurers  gathered  on  board  the  ships. 
Below  were  those  dim  water  spaces,  full  of  myste 
rious  shadow,  where  the  madrepores  were  silently 
at  work  aiding  in  building  up  the  world ;  the  algae, 
gorgonia,  and  sponges  formed  submarine  forests  of 
interwoven  fronds,  fit  abode  for  rainbow-tinted  fish  ; 
and  fragile  molluscs,  with  shells  like  glass,  or  trans 
parent  bodies,  were  ready  to  teach  Vespucci  all 
phases  of  sea  manoauvres,  from  the  casting  anchor 


di  San  Martina. 


THE   FIRST   VOYAGE.  167 

by  means  of  silken  threads  (the  byssus)  attached 
to  the  fringes  of  the  mantle,  or  of  progression  with 
the  use  of  bladder-sail,  oar-legs,  and  rudder-tail. 
Each  form  of  life  had  its  message,  could  the  serpen- 
.tine  eel  tribe,  gliding  among  rocky  ledges,  the  flat 
disks  of  the  flounder  family,  lurking  burrowing  in 
sand  at  the  bottom,  and  the  alert  hosts  of  mackerel, 
cod,  and  herring,  journeying  in  multitudes  through 
the  waves,  but  be  clearly  discerned.  It  may  be  that 
Vespucci  tasted  the  flesh  of  the  dolphin,  digestible 
or  otherwise,  on  this  first  voyage,  and  decided  on 
the  delicacy  of  the  porpoise's  liver,  even  compound 
ing  the  sauce  of  bread-crumbs,  sugar,  and  vinegar, 
with  which  the  gigantic  fish  is  reputed  to  have  been 
a  favourite  dish  with  the  English  nobility,  in  the 
chronicles  of  London,  as  late  as  the  reign  of  Queen 
Elizabeth. 

The  iron  steamer  ploughing  through  the  waves 
with  mechanical  regularity  has  destroyed  marine 
romance.  In  the  infancy  of  voyaging,  when  Ves 
pucci  ventured  forth  from  port,  imagination  peopled 
the  unknown  deep  with  childish  terrors,  such  as  the 
monsters  depicted  on  old  maps,  the  kraken,  of  which 
Pliny  and  Aristotle  related  marvels  as  checking  the 
progress  of  ships  in  spite  of  sails  and  oars,  and  the 
naturalists  of  the  Eenaissance,  Olaiis  Magnus  and 
Denis  de  Montfort,  fostered  a  popular  credence  of 
probability,  and  all  the  ogres  of  the  cephalopod 
race,  the  sepias  and  calmars  that  embrace  vessels 
with  gigantic  tentacles,  and  drag  them  down  to 


168 


dark  subterranean  abysses.  As  the  scholar  of  his 
ship  the  thoughts  of  Amerigo  Vespucci  would  have 
dwelt  in  the  reveries  of  the  evening  hour  on  the 
earlier  classical  shapes  haunting  the  azure  belt  of 
the  earth,  the  ocean.  How  readily  the  hoary  heads 
of  Neptune  and  Nereus,  crowned  with  tangled  sea 
weeds,  and  the  lovely  forms  of  the  Oceanides  would 
be  evolved,  rising  in  the  midst  of  every  shoal  of 
dolphins  sporting  off  the  coast  of  Portugal.  Before 
him  floated  such  fairy  craft  as  the  argonautos* 
renowned  among  the  Greeks  and  Eomans  and  de 
scribed  by  Oppian  in  a  poem  on  fishing :  — 

"  Hiding  itself  in  a  concave  shell  the  pompilus  can 
walk  on  land,  but  can  also  rise  to  the  surface  of  the 
water,  the  back  of  its  shell  upward  for  fear  that  it  should 
be  filled.  The  moment  it  is  seen  it  turns  the  shell,  and 
navigates  it  like  a  skilful  seaman.  In  order  to  do  this  it 
throws  out  two  of  its  feet,  like  antennas,  between  which  is 
a  thin  membrane  which  is  extended  by  the  wind  as  a  sail, 
while  two  others  touching  the  water  guide  as  with  a 
rudder  the  house,  the  ship,  and  the  animal.  If  danger 
approaches  it  folds  up  its  antennae,  sail,  and  rudder,  and 
dives,  its  weight  being  increased  by  the  water  which  it 
causes  to  enter  the  shell.  As  we  see  a  man  who  is  victor 
in  the  public  games,  his  head  circled  by  a  crown,  while 
vast  crowds  press  around,  so  the  pompilus  has  always 
a  crowd  of  ships  following  in  its  track,  the  crews  of  which 
no  longer  dread  to  quit  the  land.  0  fish,  justly  dear 
to  navigators,  thy  presence  announces  winds  soft  and 
friendly  :  thou  bringest  the  calm,  and  thou  art  the  sign 
of  it ! " 


THE   FIRST   VOYAGE.  169 

The  mediaeval,  superstitious  phase  of  the  romance 
of  the  sea,  in  the  fullest  sense,  played  about  the 
craft  of  America's  godfather,  like  the  golden  reflec 
tions  of  sunset  tingeing  the  waves.  The  sailors 
prayed  to  St.  .Nicholas  to  calm  rough  weather,  re 
joiced  to  behold  the  good  omen  of  St.  Elmo's  fire 
dimly  burning  in  meteoric  exhalations  at  the  yard- 
arm,  and  dreaded  the  spells  of  misty  northern 
shores  where  Finus  sold  gales  of  wind  tied  up  in 
bags.  The  compass  and  the  weather-vane  guided 
them.  Vespucci  was  at  liberty  to  estimate  the 
marvellous  nautical  instrument  from  which  Colurn- 
bus  had  just  wrested  a  great  secret  in  the  deflection 
of  the  magnetic  needle  on  the  high  seas,  as  a 
magician  holds  a  wand,  as  claimed  by  the  Swedes, 
invented  in  remote  antiquity  by  the  Chinese,  and 
brought  to  Europe  by  Marco  Polo,  used  by  the  Arabs 
in  India/while  the  Carthaginians,  Romans,  and  Greeks 
had  acquired  knowledge  of  it  from  the  Tyrians  and 
Phoenicians.  The  mariners  might  still  gossip  over 
such  curious  legends  as  the  appeal  of  the  Archbishop 
of  Bordeaux  to  King  Louis  to  rescue  the  Holy 
Sepulchre  from  the  Turk.  Said  the  Archbishop  :  — 

"  Sire-le-Roi,  you  in  your  Louvre  at  Paris,  clad  in  rich 
clothes  and  with  a  gold  crown  on  your  head,  listen  to 
music  of  violins  and  hautboys,  drink  fine  wines,  attend 
balls  and  parades,  and  play  games  night  and  day,  while  in 
the  country  you  hunt  deer,  boars,  and  partridges ;  you 
know  not  what  passes  on  the  other  shore  of  the  sea  of 
Jerusalem,  or  you  would  leave  your  rich  garments  and 


170 


crown  for  a  helmet  and  a  cuirass.  You  would  then  have 
a  taste  for  no  other  music  than  that  of  trumpets,  drums, 
and  cannon,  and  in  place  of  hare  would  hunt  Turkish 
renegades." 

He  further  describes  how  a  certain  Mahomet, 
escaped  from  the  galleys  at  Marseilles,  is  aided  by 
the  devil  in  working  mischief,  pretending  to  be  an 
angel,  a  prophet,  even  a  Messiah.  The  tender  con 
science  of  St.  Louis  was  not  proof  against  such 
reproaches.  He  clapped  his  helmet  on  his  head, 
ordered  out  his  war-horse,  and  took  ship  without 
delay,  making  the  archbishop  admiral,  but  adding 
Jean  d'Auray,  a  devout  old  Breton  pilot,  who  knew 
all  countries  north  and  south,  as  far  as  the  land  of 
the  Turk,  to  the  crew.  The  king  and  his  soldiers 
thus  embarked ;  but  the  devil  also  came  on  board, 
now  pushing  the  fleet  ashore  by  means  of  contrary 
winds,  and  again  raising  a  fog  more  dense  than  the 
fumes  of  tar,  so  that  Jean  d'Auray,  discerning 
neither  the  east  from  the  west,  implored  the 
Madonna  to  show  her  star.  Lo !  a  fine  ship,  with 
three  masts,  appeared  in  the  sky,  more  brilliant  than 
the  moon.  The  hull  was  of  gold  and  pure  silver, 
the  banner  of  St.  Anne  d'Auray  floated  from  the 
mainmast,  and  the  mainsail  was  the  mantle  of  St. 
Martin,  while  the  Virgin,  seated  on  the  poop,  clasped 
the  infant  Christ,  who  held  the  ball  of  the  world. 
A  celestial  voice  commanded :  "  Good  pilot,  take  my 
star.  It  will  also  guide  you  on  the  sea."  Jean 
d'Auray  held  in  his  hand  a  star  of  thirty-two 


THE   FIRST   VOYAGE.  171 

points,  with  the  fleur-de-lys  north,  a  cross  east, 
and  west  an  eagle  with  two  heads.  This  was 
nothing  less  than  the  ancient  rose  des  vents  of 
early  books  of  hydrography,  with  the  centre  of  the 
circle  divided  into  three  hundred  and  sixty  degrees, 
and  thirty-two  points  of  the  compass,  the  design  of 
a  shrine,  with  the  Madonna  enthroned,  and  each 
rnast  with  the  French  flag,  with  the  fleur-de-lys,  a 
star,  and  the  motto,  "  Our  guide  at  sea,  and  to  the 
sky." 

The  crab  taken  alive  by  Columbus  from  the 
tangled  wealth  of  seaweed  belongs  to  history.  No 
doubt  alert  and  curious  fellow-crabs  eyed  Vespucci 
as  he  passed  their  floating  islands,  tiny  warriors 
clad  in  armour  every  whit  as  redoubtable  as  the 
mail  and  cuirass  of  those  mediaeval  knights  on 
board,  from  the  standpoint  of  a  crustacean. 

The  sea  signified  to  Vespucci  the  route  of  the 
merchant  and  the  speculator,  the  arena  of  redoubt 
able  quarrels,  ancient  and  modern,  and  a  series  of 
discoveries  and  conquests  begun  by  the  semi-fabu 
lous  Argonauts,  reaching  to  Saracenic  incursions, 
Norman  invasions,  the  Armada,  and  far  beyond  his 
day  to  contests  around  the  Poles.  In  the  year  1494 
Spain  had  granted  freedom  of  navigation  and  com 
merce  of  the  Indies,  —  a  permission  which  infringed 
on  the  rights  of  Columbus,  and  was  not  revoked 
until  June,  1497,  when  Vespucci  had  already  sailed. 
Gomara,  the  historian,  affirmed  that  many  navigators 
availed  themselves  of  the  opportunity  to  pursue  the 


172  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

discoveries,  some  at  their  own  expense,  and  others 
at  the  cost  of  the  king,  while  all  dreamed  of 
enriching  themselves,  acquiring  renown,  or  winning 
the  esteem  of  the  sovereigns  ;  but  the  majority  of 
them  made  no  discoveries,  and  only  ruined  them 
selves.  "  There  remains  no  record  of  all" 
Varnhagen  states :  — 

"  The  fact  is  that  putting  aside  the  errors  of  Herrera, 
and  the  unjustifiable  suppositions  of  Humboldt,  the 
simple  reading  of  the  account  of  Vespucci  made  to  Sode- 
rini,  on  his  first  voyage,  leaves  the  mind  convinced  of  his 
veracity,  because  he  speaks  to  us  of  a  laud  that  exists  as 
he  described  it,  and  which  he  must  have  visited  himself, 
unless  one  accredits  him  with  the  gift  of  divination,  be 
cause  at  the  date  when  he  wrote,  in  1504,  no  description 
had  been  given  of  those  regions.  Vespucci  says  :  *  Having 
left  Cadiz  on  the  10th  of  May,  1497,  and  having  sailed 
one  thousand  leagues  west-southwest,  the  fleet  arrived 
after  thirty-seven  days,  consequently  the  17th  of  June 
(several  days  before  the  landing  of  Cabot),  in  sight  of 
land,  in  latitude  16°  north,  and  longitude  75°  to  the 
west  of  the  Canaries.' 

"  The  map  shows  us  this  shore  on  the  Gulf  of  Hon 
duras,  with  a  slight  difference  in  the  longitude,  which 
must  have  been  a  little  less ;  but  this  slight  difference  need 
occasion  no  surprise  when  one  recalls  the  imperfection  of 
instruments,  and  when  it  concerns  a  first  voyage  on  the 
seas  where  there  are  currents  of  which  the  influence  has 
not  been  foreseen.  The  next  day,  and  for  two  days  after, 
Vespucci  followed  the  coast  in  sight  of  land,  toward  the 
northwest.  This  is  the  direction  of  Yucatan.  He  con- 


THE   FIRST   VOYAGE.  173 

tinned  this  course  for  several  days,  often  disembarking, 
and  holding  intercourse  with  the  inhabitants. 

The  points  of  the  compass  are  not  indicated  in  the 
recital,  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  circumnavigated 
Yucatan.  He  reached  a  port  in  the  midst  of  which  he 
saw  a  collection  of  forty-four  houses  built  on  the  water, 
like  Venice,  and  with  drawbridges  which  they  raise  to 
defend  themselves.  This  port  was  situated  twenty-four 
leagues  to  the  south  of  another  visited  by  him  later,  in 
latitude,  north,  of  23°,  and  which  cannot  have  been  other 
than  Vera  Cruz,  or  even  the  Isla  de  los  Sacrificios,  and 
that  of  Ulua  with  houses.  Pursuing  his  way  toward  the 
north,  he  gained  a  port  nearly  under  the  tropic  of  Cancer, 
abounding  in  fish,  of  which  they  made  bread.  The  coun 
try  was  watered  by  rivers,  and  birds  appeared  in  great 
numbers.  The  natives  spoke  a  different  language  from 
that  of  the  port  he  had  quitted  at  twenty-four  leagues  to 
the  south.  In  all  probability  he  found  himself  near 
Tampico  or  Panuco.  The  region  is  well  watered,  and 
abounds  in  birds.  A  short  distance  south  is  the  frontier 
of  the  Totonac  Indians,  who  dwell  on  the  coast  of  Vera 
Cruz.  On  another  side,  at  Tampico  and  at  Panuco,  the 
Indians  were  essentially  different  from  their  neighbours  of 
the  south,  the  Totonacs.  They  belonged  to  the  race 
Maya,  who  had  invaded  Cuba  and  Jamaica.  The  descrip 
tion  given  by  Vespucci,  in  1504,  on  the  morals  and  cus 
toms  of  these  aborigines  coincides  with  that  of  other 
voyagers  who  later  visited  this  portion  of  the  coast  of  North 
America.  Up  to  this  point  we  can  perceive  no  possibility 
of  revoking  the  details  given  by  the  Florentine  navigator 
on  his  first  voyage,  after  the  simple  reading  of  the  letter 
to  Soderini,  in  the  original  text,  and  without  the  aid  of 


174  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

proofs  from  any  other  source.  We  cannot  say  as  much 
for  the  following  lines.  Vespucci,  probably  wishing  to 
abridge  too  much,  becomes  incomplete  and  obscure.  Here 
are  his  words  :  — 

" '  We  left  this  port  (situated  at  23°  of  north  latitude), 
and  we  sailed  along  the  coast  in  sight  of  land,  for  a  dis 
tance  of  870  leagues  still  toward  the  northwest,  landing 
often,  and  communicating  with  the  inhabitants.  In  sev 
eral  places  we  bought  gold,  but  in  small  quantities.  .  .  . 
Finally,  after  thirteen  months  of  voyaging,  seeing  our 
vessels  and  their  apparel  in  a  bad  state,  and  our  sailors 
very  much  fatigued,  we  resolved  in  council  to  put  our 
ships  to  dry,  to  inspect  them  (because  they  took  in  much 
water),  and  to  calk  and  tar  them  anew,  in  order  to  be  able 
to  return  to  Spain.  When  we  made  this  resolution  we 
were  near  a  port,  the  best  in  the  world,  into  which  we 
entered  with  our  vessels,  and  where  we  found  natives  who 
received  us  with  much  good-will.  We  made  on  the  shore 
a  fort  with  boats  and  casks,  and  placed  cannon  where 
they  played  on  all  sides.  We  gathered  also  all  that  we 
had  removed  from  our  ships  on  the  strand,  to  make 
repairs  with  the  aid  of  the  Indians,  who  furnished  us 
with  provisions  in  such  abundance  that  in  this  place  we 
scarcely  used  our  own  ;  which  we  found  very  convenient, 
as  we  had  but  scanty  supplies  for  our  return.  We  re 
mained  here  for  thirty-seven  days.  When  we  wished  to 
pursue  our  voyage  the  Indians  complained  of  fearing  a 
ferocious  and  hostile  nation,  who,  at  certain  seasons  of  the 
year,  came  by  sea  to  their  land,  entering  by  treason  or 
force,  and  killing  many  of  the  inhabitants,  whom  they  ate 
immediately,  while  others  were  taken  captive  without 
power  of  resistance.  We  were  given  to  understand  that 


THE  FIRST   VOYAGE.  175 

these  enemies  dwelt  on  an  island  one  hundred  leagues 
distant.  They  related  all  this  to  us  with  so  many  proofs 
of  attachment  that  we  were  moved,  and  we  promised  to 
avenge  them  of  their  wrongs,  which  caused  them  great 
joy.  They  offered  to  join  us,  which  we  did  not  accept 
for  various  reasons;  however,  we  took  seven  of  the  tribe, 
on  condition  that  they  came  alone  in  their  canoes,  to 
which  they  consented  without  difficulty ;  then  we  bade 
farewell  to  all,  esteeming  them  as  friends.  Recovered 
from  our  hardships,  and  our  damages  repaired,  we  sailed 
seven  days  towards  the  east- northeast,  until  we  found 
ourselves  opposite  many  islands,  some  of  which  were 
inhabited,  and  others  deserted.  We  approached  one  of 
these,  where  we  cast  anchor ;  we  saw  on  the  beach  a  great 
number  of  natives,  who  called  the  island  Ity.  Seeing 
these  things  we  placed  on  board  of  our  sloops  chosen  men, 
with  three  cannon,  and  approaching  the  land  little  by 
little,  we  could  discern  on  the  shore  at  least  four  hundred 
men,  with  many  women.  They  were  naked,  seemed  agile, 
were  warriors  and  courageous,  because  they  were  armed 
with  bows  and  arrows,  and  lances ;  many  carried  square 
shields  to  defend  themselves  without  the  trouble  of  shoot 
ing  their  arrows.  We  drew  near  to  the  land  in  our  little 
boats,  and  were  at  a  short  distance  when  they  sprang  into 
the  sea,  and  hurled  a  great  quantity  of  arrows  at  us,  to 
prevent  our  disembarkation.  All  had  their  bodies  painted 
of  divers  colours,  and  were  ornamented  with  bird-feathers. 
Those  accompanying  us  warned  us  that  when  they  re 
quired  to  defend  themselves  they  decked  the  bodies  in  this 
manner,  as  a  proof  of  their  being  ready  for  combat.  In 
fact,  they  prevented  us  from  landing  in  such  a  manner 
that  we  were  obliged  to  fire  our  cannon  on  them;  and 


176  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

scarcely  had  they  heard  the  sound  and  perceived  the 
effects,  in  observing  several  of  their  number  fall  dead,  than 
they  retreated  to  land.  Then  we  agreed  to  send  in  pur 
suit  forty-two  of  our  men  to  fight  them ;  and  having 
landed  with  our  arms,  the  resistance  they  made  was  such 
that  for  nearly  an  hour  we  struggled  with  them,  without 
obtaining  any  success,  if  it  was  not  killing  several,  but 
they  parried  the  blows  of  our  lances  and  swords  with 
much  address.  At  length  we  made  a  charge  with  such 
impetuosity  that  they  fled  to  their  forests,  and  left  us 
masters  of  the  field,  with  many  among  them  killed  and 
wounded.  That  day  we  did  not  pursue  them  further 
because  we  were  weary;  we  returned  to  our  ships,  and 
such  was  the  joy  of  the  seven  Indians  who  has  accom 
panied  us  that  they  did  not  know  how  to  manifest  their 
satisfaction.  The  next  day  we  noticed  that  many  of  the 
inhabitants  approached  the  beach  all  painted  and  adorned 
with  the  plumage  of  birds,  playing  on  trumpets,  and  other 
instruments  of  war  of  which  they  made  use.  This  was 
for  us  an  admirable  spectacle.  Perceiving  that  they  were 
prepared  to  treat  us  with  hostility,  we  resolved  to  attempt 
to  make  of  them  friends,  and,  in  a  contrary  sense,  to  treat 
them  as  enemies,  and  consider  as  slaves  all  those  we  could 
seize  as  prisoners.  This  resolution  taken,  we  armed  our 
selves  the  best  possible,  and  steered  for  the  shore.  Fear 
ing  our  artillery,  as  it  appeared,  they  did  not  attempt  to 
prevent  our  landing.  Arrived  on  shore  we  divided  our 
forces  into  four  companies,  of  fifty-seven  men  each,  with 
a  captain,  and  we  fought  a  long  time,  body  to  body,  until  so 
many  of  them  were  killed  that  they  had  to  take  to  flight. 
We  pursued  them  to  one  of  their  villages,  and  made 
twenty-five  prisoners.  After  setting  fire  to  the  village 


THE  FIRST   VOYAGE.  177 

we  withdrew  to  our  vessels,  taking  with  us  the  twenty- 
five  prisoners,  and  leaving  a  considerable  number  dead 
and  wounded,  without  other  loss  on  our  side  than  one 
killed,  and  twenty-two  wounded ;  all  these,  thanks  be  to 
God,  were  cured.  Having  decided  on  our  return,  the 
seven  Indians  who  had  guided  us,  among  whom  five  had 
been  wounded  in  the  combat,  returned  to  their  own 
country  well  satisfied,  and  full  of  admiration  of  our 
prowess.  We  gave  them  a  canoe  which  we  had  taken  in 
the  isles,  with  seven  of  the  prisoners,  of  whom  three  were 
men,  and  four  women.  Continuing  our  route  to  Spain, 
we  re-entered  the  port  of  Cadiz,  with  two  hundred  and 
twenty-two  captives,  on  the  15th  of  October,  1499.  We 
were  received  with  much  joy,  and  sold  our  captives.' " 

The  objection  to  the  large  number  of  prisoners 
given,  and  the  probability  that  the  figures  "  22 " 
were  actually  meant,  is  urged  on  the  score  of  the 
illegibility  of  the  writing.  The  veracity  of  this  first 
voyage  has  been  seriously  doubted  on  the  score  of 
Vespucci  making  no  mention  of  the  place  where 
he  traversed  the  line  of  the  Antilles.  Varnhagen's 
argument  of  defence  is  interesting :  — 

"  From  our  own  experience,  sailing-vessels  and  steamers 
may  pass  through  one  of  these  channels  between  the 
islands  without  sighting  land,  either  on  one  side  or  the 
other  (especially  between  San  Domingo  and  Martinique, 
and  also  north  of  Guadeloupe),  either  because  passed  in 
the  night,  or  at  a  distance,  and  finally,  because  of  the  fogs 
which  gather  over  these  islands  so  frequently  from  the 
ocean,  and  sometimes  envelop  them.  It  is  not  impossible 
that  the  fleet  on  board  of  which  was  Vespucci,  and  which 
12 


178  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

saw  Honduras  at  16°,  passed  between  these  isles,  situated 
nearly  in  the  same  latitude." 

The  letter  written  by  Geronimo  Vianello,  from 
Spain  to  the  Signory  of  Venice,  of  the  date  1506, 
found  by  Eanke,  and  given  to  Humboldt  in  1839,  is 
additionally  conclusive  of  the  claims  of  America's 
godfather  to  respectful  consideration  :  — 

"  Two  ships,  which  went  to  make  discoveries  in  India, 
belonging  to  the  King,  my  Seigneur,  have  returned.  They 
have  in  command  Jean  Biscayen  and  Amerigo,  Florentine, 
who  have  sailed  west-southwest  two  hundred  leagues  be 
yond  the  Isle  of  Spain,  which  is  two  thousand  leagues 
from  the  Columns  of  Hercules.  And  they  have  discovered 
a  continent  (according  to  their  judgment),  because  they 
followed  the  coast  for  six  hundred  leagues,  and  came  to  a 
great  river  forty  leagues  from  its  mouth.  They  ascended 
this  river  for  a  distance  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  leagues, 
and  they  observed  that  it  contained  numerous  small 
islands,  inhabited  by  Indians  entirely  naked,  who  sub 
sisted  on  fish.  Then  they  skirted  the  coast  of  this  land 
for  a  distance  of  six  hundred  leagues,  and  they  met  an 
Indian  canoe  resembling  a  kneading-trough,  cut  in  a  piece 
of  wood.  The  archbishop  will  send  again  these  two  cap 
tains,  with  eight  ships,  and  four  hundred  men,  well  armed 
with  artillery." 

Varnhagen  adds :  — 

"  We  know  that  the  pilot  Juan  Biscayan  (Juan  de  la 
Cosa)  was  with  the  Florentine  on  his  second  voyage, 
which  he  made  with  Ojeda ;  but  nothing  hinders  that  the 
same  Cosa  should  also  have  accompanied  Vespucci  on  his 


THE  FIRST  VOYAGE.  179 

first  voyage.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  proved  that  in  1497 
and  1498  Cosa  was  not  elsewhere  employed,  and  it  is 
impossible  to  adapt  the  description  of  Vianello  to  the 
voyage  made  with  Ojeda  in  1499  and  1500;  as  on  this 
voyage,  although  they  passed  three  great  rivers,  —  the 
Maraguan,  the  Amazon,  and  the  Orinoco,  —  it  is  known 
that  they  did  not  ascend  either  stream.  Let  us  note  well, 
Vianello  states  land  was  found  at  two  hundred  leagues 
from  the  Isle  of  Spain.  Now  two  hundred  leagues  is  the 
distance  from  Hayti  to  Honduras.  He  says,  also,  that  the 
fleet  followed  the  coast  for  six  hundred  leagues,  as  far  as 
the  mouth  of  a  great  river.  Six  hundred  leagues  is  ahout 
the  distance,  by  the  coast,  from  Cape  Higueras  to  the 
mouths  of  the  Mississippi." 

Such  is  the  outline  of  the  famous  first  voyage  of 
Amerigo  Vespucci. 

The  feathered  chorus  of  little  greenish  birds, 
since  made  prisoners  in  cages  all  over  the  world, 
sang  their  greeting  to  Vespucci,  as  he  skirted  the 
Canary  Islands.  The  cliffs,  rising  above  the  sea, 
half  concealed  by  the  mists  of  early  morning,  yet 
revealed  the  rocks  whence  the  early  inhabitants 
flung  themselves  as  a  human  sacrifice  in  honour  of 
a  chief.  In  less  exalted  mood  they  dwelt  here 
peacefully,  subsisting  on  fruit,  barley,  and  milk, 
painting  their  bodies  yellow,  red,  and  green,  with 
the  juices  of  herbs,  casting  stones  with  unerring 
accuracy  of  aim,  and  climbing  the  heights  with  the 
agility  of  goats.  Vespucci  need  not  have  been  a 
mere  dreamer  if  his  imagination  was  bewitched  by 


180  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

visions  formed  of  cloud,  fleeting  fog-masses,  and 
peaks  defined  on  the  sky  of  the  fabulous  Fortunate 
Isles  of  the  ancient  Greeks  and  Egyptians,  as  luring 
bold  mariners  to  further  research  across  the  seas. 

Honduras  and  the  peninsula  of  Yucatan,  given 
the  name  of  New  Spain  until  the  date  of  1815, 
awaited  Vespucci,  —  the  vast  plain  of  the  interior, 
traversed  by  a  low  chain  of  hills  from  the  northwest 
to  the  southeast,  a  nearly  waterless  region  of  cactus 
and  red-pine ;  the  most  fertile  portion  lying  in  the 
direction  of  the  Bay  of  Ascension  and  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  where  the  trees  of  Campeachy,  in  the  pro 
vince  of  Merida,  were  destined  to  acquire  such 
value  in  commerce.  The  worthy  iguana  waited  for 
Vespucci  to  describe  him,  with  that  aptitude  of 
close  observation  of  plant,  bird,  and  animal,  which 
characterised  Columbus  and  the  godfather  of  Amer 
ica  alike.  The  harmless  herbivorous  lizard,  —  a 
fearsome  creature,  half-serpent  and  half-dragon  to 
these  early  sailors,  with  pouch  under  the  chin, 
crenelated  crest  along  the  spine,  the  back  of  a  dark- 
green  hue,  merging  to  silver  and  yellow  tints  on  the 
scaly  body,  —  was  already  roasting  over  aboriginal 
fires,  turned  on  a  wooden  spit.  The  manatee  of  the 
bays  and  lagoons  of  the  low  shores  browsed  on  the 
grass  and  weeds  of  fresh-water  districts,  in  happy 
ignorance  that  another  race  was  approaching  its 
haunts,  even  more  voracious  than  the  natives  who 
harpooned  it,  and  cut  the  flesh  into  strips  to  dry, 
threatening  extinction  of  species. 


THE  FIRST  VOYAGE.  181 

The  cachalot  disported  in  the  vicinity  untroubled 
by  the  fact  that  the  precious  deposit  of  spermaceti 
in  its  own  head  would  compete  with  the  wax  of 
the  hives  of  stingless  bees  in  the  valleys  of  neigh 
bouring  Yucatan  to  manufacture  candles  for  the 
religious  .ceremonials  of  Koman  Catholic  communi 
ties  in  the  future,  and  the  dread  of  the  British 
whaler's  speedily  hunting  it  away  to  the  South 
Seas.  As  for  the  scissor-bill  over  on  the  strand  of 
the  Antilles,  it  trotted,  wearing  white  plumage  and 
a  black  mantle,  in  search  of  food,  opening  and  pick 
ing  up  crabs  with  an  epicurean  relish  entirely  unim 
paired  by  any  doubt  whether  or  not  Amerigo  Ves 
pucci  would  discern  land  in  that  quarter,  and  thus 
add  another  knotty  problem  to  history.  The  alli 
gator  folk,  lying  as  inert  as  logs  in  marshy  spots, 
yawned,  and  prepared  to  fish  for  their  supper  with 
equal  unconcern  as  to  the  movements  of  the  great 
Florentine  navigator.  Vespucci  commended  the  lit 
tle  cakes  or  bread,  made  of  pounded  fishes  by  the 
Huastecas,  so  we  may  reasonably  suppose  that  the 
eager  mariners  of  those  first  cockle-shell  vessels  ate 
steaks  of  green  turtle  as  well,  plantains  buried 
in  leaves  until  decomposed,  and  cooked  after  the 
manner  of  sauer-Jcraut,  oysters  gathered  from  the 
branches  of  mangroves  on  the  San  Rio,  pine-apples, 
allicavo  pears,  limes,  papahs,  cashews,  and  guavas. 
The  Indian  afloat  in  his  dory,  cut  out  of  a  single 
log  of  mahogany  or  of  cedar,  surely  speared  the 
stone-bass,  mullet,  mackerel,  baracouta,  and  angel- 


182  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

fish  for  the  delectation  of  the  white  stranger.  Long 
sustained  only  by  the  water  of  the  casks,  the  wine 
and  vinegar  of  shipboard,  Vespucci  must  have  been 
refreshed  by  those  beverages  drawn  from  the  juices 
of  plants  in  arid  countries,  the  mushla,  the  plato- 
lire  pressed  from  ripe  plantains,  another  drink  from 
the  pine-apple  named  peto-lire,  that  of  the  sugar 
cane  caryu-lire,  the  chiclia,  derived  from  maize,  and 
the  famous  pulque  of  the  agave. 

Mexico  awaited  Vespucci,  with  all  the  surface 
record  of  her  ancient  civilisation  outspread  in  her 
ports  and  cities,  and  her  riches  unrealised,  even  in 
passing,  her  soil  veined  with  mines  of  mercury  and 
cinnabar,  sulphur,  carbonate  and  chromate  of  lead, 
fluor-spar,  opals,  green  garnets,  and  chrysophase. 

The  Mississippi  sent  a  distant  welcome  to  the  timid 
explorers  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  who  were  aware 
—  oh,  how  dimly  !  — that  before  them  stretched  the 
alluvial  deposit  of  the  vast  basin,  and  the  delta  of  a 
mighty  river. 

Beyond  was  Florida,  with  many  a  shallow  lake, 
and  a  margin  of  coast  skirted  by  islands  formed  by 
the  action  of  the  waves,  and  the  mouths  of  streams 
usually  obstructed  by  sand-bars.  A  land  of  magic, 
Florida,  at  that  first  glance  of  Vespucci,  from  the 
silvery  sands  of  the  southern  and  western  shores, 
the  low  reaches  of  cabbage-palm  and  mangrove, 
cypress  swamp,  and  hummock,  with  all  the  dense 
growth  of  live-oak,  magnolia,  bay,  or  cedar,  and 
undergrowth  of  sumac,  azalea,  lobelia,  and  cassia,  to 


THE  FIRST  VOYAGE.  183 

the  upper  pine  lands.  Florida  is  the  realm  of 
charming  possibilities,  a  sort  of  enchanted  garden 
in  our  day.  Where  the  valiant  knight  Ponce  de  Leon 
sought  the  Fountain  of  Youth  modern  invalids 
would  fain  drink  of  some  spring  of  renewed  health, 
and  the  fortune-hunter  strives  to  cull  wealth  in  the 
golden  fruit  of  Hesperides  rather  than  by  delving 
for  buried  mineral  ore.  Little  cared  the  herons, 
pelicans,  white  egrets,  ducks,  and  turkey  buzzards, 
the  puma,  bear,  gray  wolf,  and  ocelot,  gliding  in  the 
shadow  of  the  woods,  for  the  approach  of  a  Euro 
pean  sail. 

Bermuda  awaited  Vespucci,  a  low  cluster  of  islets 
on  the  bosom  of  the  ocean,  fragrant  with  cedar- 
trees,  coral  reefs  stretching  far  beneath  the  pellu 
cid  waves,  ready  to  wound  adventurous  craft  with 
their  jagged  fangs  should  the  voyager  escape  the 
arrows  of  the  then  fierce  inhabitants.  Each  crystal- 
clear  pool  and  inlet  was  a  tiny  world  of  marine 
life,  unstirred  by  the  conflict  of  invasion,  silky  ten 
tacles  of  algae,  rose-tinted  and  yellow,  purple  sea- 
fans,  and  tawny  sponges  expanding  unharmed  in 
transparent  depths,  while  myriad-hued  fish,  sea- 
urchins,  and  mollusks  pursued  their  own  business. 

Thus  the  arena  of  a  new  world  was  outspread 
before  Vespucci,  as  one  of  the  precursors  of  the 
great  drama  of  conquest,  rivalry,  and  colonisation 
about  to  be  here  enacted  by  the  struggling  races 
of  mankind.  Guyot,  the  physical  geographist, 
states :  — 


184  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

"  As  the  plant  for  the  animal,  so  America  is  made  for  the 
man  of  the  old  world.  The  two  worlds  look  at  each 
other  face  to  face,  and  incline  toward  one  another.  The 
old  bends  toward  the  new,  and  America  looks  to  the 
old." 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  SECOND   VOYAGE. 

AMERIGO  VESPUCCI  returned  to  Spain.  The  Gi- 
ralda  was  again  visible  as  a  graceful  tower  on  the 
horizon,  and  no  doubt  he  sought  a  shrine  of  Our 
Lady,  in  which  to  offer  thanks  for  a  safe  transit  to 
Spain,  after  the  fashion  of  the  French  and  the 
Mediterranean  sailors.  The  Cathedral  walls  had 
not  yet  risen  from  the  foundations  above  the  height 
of  a  man.  If  the  town  made  an  ovation,  the  case 
ments  and  balconies  of  the  houses  being  adorned 
with  hangings,  and  an  enthusiastic  populace  gathered 
in  the  streets,  and  even  on  the  roofs,  to  witness  the 
arrival  of  the  Florentine,  as  on  the  previous  occa 
sion  of  the  advent  of  Columbus  when  en  route  for 
Barcelona,  no  record  of  the  fact  has  been  found. 
Silence  proves  nothing,  as  may  often  be  noted  in 
the  career  of  Vespucci.  The  reticence  of  history 
of  that  period  of  discovery  affords  one  of  the  most 
curious  phases  of  rival  claims  and  national  jealousy 
in  the  range  of  study.  It  would  seem  far  more 
probable  that  the  return  of  Amerigo  Vespucci  was 
unnoticed,  and  any  warm  welcome  bestowed  on  his 
companions  of  ship-board  by  family  and  friends 


186  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

would  scarcely  have  fallen  to  his  portion  as  well. 
He  was  a  foreigner,  and  must  have  been  a  lonely 
and  self-reliant  character.  He  was  not  married  at 
this  date. 

Neglect  as  to  any  public  praise  of  this  first  voyage 
need  not  have  aroused  especial  sentiments  of  wrong 
and  grief  in  the  heart  of  Vespucci.  His  explora 
tions  had  met  with  no  brilliant  success.  He  had 
not  sailed  into  a  Spanish  port  with  vessel  freighted 
with  pearls,  gems,  and  gold,  like  some  Argosy  from 
the  Orient,  to  excite  the  wonder  and  envy  of  all 
spectators.  The  much-disputed  first  voyage  seems 
to  have  been  of  a  private,  not  to  say  clandestine, 
nature,  and  undertaken  in  the  service  of  King  Fer 
dinand  as  a  venture  which  must  not  interfere  with 
the  patents  already  granted  to  Columbus.  In  addi 
tion,  the  suspicions  and  animosity  of  Portugal  were 
always  to  be  considered  and  allayed.  The  harvest 
of  the  voyage  was  meagre.  King  Ferdinand  must 
have  frowned  and  pursed  up  his  lips  as  he  counted 
the  cost  of  the  expedition  fitted  out  by  himself. 

Prescott  states :  "  Probably  there  has  been  no 
period  in  which  the  princes  of  Europe  felt  so  sensi 
bly  their  penury  as  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth 
century."  The  astute  sovereign  of  Aragon  was 
especially  hampered  by  the  financial  embarrassments 
incident  to  military  campaigns.  Vespucci  did  not 
stand  on  a  promontory  and  behold  America  out 
spread  before  his  gaze,  like  Balboa  surveying  the 
wide  expanse  of  the  Pacific  Ocean  from  the  moun- 


Portrait  of  Ferdinand  of  Aragon. 


THE   SECOND  VOYAGE.  187 

tain  heights ;  he  lifted  a  corner  of  the  vast  opaque 
curtain  of  the  unknown.  Truth  may  be  attained 
only  after  many  stumbles  on  the  rocks  of  error  by 
the  honest  seeker,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  believe, 
in  our  day,  that  he  was  not  as  honest  a  seeker  as 
his  fellows,  and  guided  by  the  enlightenment  of  a 
far  superior  education  and  intelligence. 

In  Seville  the  very  air  was  growing  electric  with 
the  new  impulses  quickening  the  minds  of  men. 
The  first  longing  was  a  greed  of  gain,  from  monarch 
to  humblest  adventurer  subject,  the  dream  of  wrest 
ing  fabulous  fortunes  from  untried  shores.  We  do 
not  read  so  much  about  the  zeal  of  the  crafty  Ferdi 
nand  to  save  the  souls  of  the  poor  Indians  already 
discovered  on  those  distant  isles,  and  gather  them 
into  the  fold  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  as  to 
replenish  his  empty  coffers.  The  generous  soul  of 
Queen  Isabella  was  moved  with  feminine  compas 
sion  and  piety  in  the  scheme  of  converting  heathen. 

At  this  date  the  first  pearl,  pure  and  lustrous, 
brought  from  America,  may  be  accepted  as  having 
bewitched  the  popular  imagination,  and  the  first 
specimens  of  gold  have  already  expanded  into  the 
platter  of  virgin  ore,  weighing  3200  castellanos, 
on  which  Ovando,  governor  of  Hispaniola,  who  suc 
ceeded  Bobadilla  in  1501,  had  roasted  pig  served. 
What  did  those  first  little  caravels  represent  to 
Amerigo  Vespucci,  save  the  craft  in  which  to  fetch 
a  rich  cargo  to  his  expectant  patron,  King  Ferdi 
nand?  The  vessels  were  expected  to  be  like  the 


188  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

nets  lowered  into  the  Nile,  at  night,  to  catch  the 
cloves,  cinnamon,  and  precious  guins,  shaken  from 
the  tree  of  Paradise,  and  otherwise  scattered  on  the 
tide,  according  to  the  marvellous  record  of  the  Sieur 
de  Joinville,  in  the  "Journeys  of  St.  Louis."  The 
gifts  of  fortune  anticipated  by  Spain  were  equally 
naive  and  ardent.  It  would  seem  more  probable 
that  the  thoughts  of  Vespucci  dwelt  on  many  other 
elements  of  the  voyage,  which  were  perplexing,  even 
baffling,  to  the  understanding  of  the  age  still  in  the 
infancy  of  Western  navigation.  How  early  in  his 
nautical  experience  he  divined  results  as  to  the 
extent  and  magnitude  of  the  lands  visited  by  Colum 
bus  and  his  followers,  we  are  not  made  distinctly 
aware ;  but  he  must  have  perceived,  however  dimly, 
that  a  wider  field  of  enterprise  was  expanding  before 
the  race  of  Europeans  in  a  new  direction. 

One  would  like  to  turn  back  a  leaf  of  the  centu 
ries,  and  share  the  moods  and  schemes  of  Amerigo 
Vespucci  at  the  time  of  his  return  to  Seville  after 
his  first  voyage.  He  was  a  human  being  of  like 
needs  and  instincts  with  ourselves,  his  span  divided 
into  hours  of  activity  and  rest,  hunger  and  fatigue. 
Did  he  disembark  from  the  weather-beaten  caravel 
which  had  borne  him  safe  to  port,  and  regain  Se 
ville,  weary  and  disgusted  with  a  seafaring  life,  and 
determined  to  remain  henceforth  a  landsman  ?  Did 
he,  on  the  contrary,  long  to  launch  forth  without 
loss  of  time  on  the  waste  of  waters,  and  make  fresh 
observations  of  the  constellations,  and  test  systems 


THE   SECOND  VOYAGE.  189 

of  measurement  of  longitude  and  latitude?  Con 
sider  the  wakeful  hours  of  night,  when  the  call  of 
the  sereno  echoed  at  intervals  through  the  streets 
of  the  city,  and  the  Florentine  turned  on  his  pillow, 
vexations,  failure,  injustice,  and  the  coldness  of  dis 
appointment  of  King  Ferdinand  stinging  pride  and 
ambition  sharply,  and  acquiring  a  dreary  magnitude 
of  importance  unfelt  when  the  sun  shone.  Consider 
the  returned  traveller  losing  himself  in  the  tide  of 
life  of  the  market  places  of  Seville  by  day,  his  ear 
wooed  by  countless  bold  projects  gathered  from  the 
eager  discussion  of  nimble  tongues,  where,  later,  the 
enthusiastic  wish  to  emigrate  is  said  to  have  threat 
ened  to  leave  only  a  population  of  women. 

Vespucci  decided  to  again  go  to  sea.  Bandini 
affirms  that  his  spirit  chafed  at  the  delay  of  a  long 
winter,  impatient  of  the  enforced  inaction,  and  in 
spired  with  the  requisite  courage  to  risk  fresh  perils, 
until  the  month  of  May,  1499,  arrived,  and  the  date 
of  sailing.  A  letter  found  in  the  Florentine  ar 
chives  applies  to  this  period  in  his  experience,  as  well 
as  earlier.  This  missive  is  addressed  to  Soderini, 
and  relates  to  the  four  voyages  of  the  writer  thus : 

"Your  Magnificence  knows  that  my  motive  in  coming 
to  this  kingdom  of  Spain  was  to  deal  in  mercantile  affairs, 
and  how  I  carried  out  this  intention  for  four  years,  during 
which  I  saw  the  varied  movements  of  Fortune  in  these 
transitory  matters,  and  how  at  one  moment  she  keeps  a 
man  at  the  summit  of  her  wheel,  and  at  another  time 
throws  him  down,  depriving  him  of  possessions  which  one 


190  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

might  say  were  only  loaned  to  him,  seeing  the  continued 
effort  man  must  make  to  conquer  them.  Submitting  to  so 
many  trials  and  perils,  I  finally  decided  to  quit  the  com 
mercial  career,  and  engage  in  something  more  worthy,  and 
free  as  I  was  this  inclined  me  toward  journeying  to  see 
a  part  of  the  world  and  its  marvels." 

Vincente  Yanez  Pinzon,  the  younger  brother  of 
Martin  Alonzo  Pinzon,  who  sailed  on  the  Pinta  with 
Columbus,  had  been  in  command  of  the  first  expe 
dition  shared  by  Vespucci,  and  Juan  Diaz  Solis  was 
the  second  officer.  Tempting  inducements  of  a  flat 
tering  sort  may  have  been  extended  to  Vespucci  to 
join  another  enterprise  in  the  service  of  King  Ferdi 
nand,  and  with  equal  probability  he  presented  him 
self  as  a  candidate  for  the  post  of  pilot.  Alonzo  da 
Ojeda  commanded  the  new  fleet,  and  Juan  de  la 
Cosa  was  second  in  rank.  We  see  Bishop  Fonseca 
as  the  true  motive  power  of  this  fresh  project.  No 
doubt  he  encouraged  Vespucci  to  take  a  share  in  it. 
Juan  Kodriguez  de  Fonseca  was  born  at  Toro  about 
the  year  1452 ;  he  became  Bishop  of  Palencia  and  of 
Burgos,  and  a  councillor  of  Queen  Isabella.  Pos 
terity  estimates  him  as  a  bigoted  Spanish  prelate, 
the  advocate  of  Torquemada,  and  the  inveterate 
enemy  of  Columbus.  After  the  lapse  of  years  Bishop 
Fonseca  appears  as  a  very  human  shape  indeed  to 
our  understanding.  Columbus  had  offended  him, 
and  when  the  great  navigator  triumphed,  dislike 
added  spite  and  a  desire  to  thwart  and  meddle  on 
the  part  of  a  prejudiced  priest.  Perhaps  Columbus, 


THE   SECOND   VOYAGE.  191 

with  good-natured  sarcasm  or  serious  purpose,  proved 
to  the  queen  that  her  spiritual  adviser  knew  more 
about  his  breviary  than  the  variations  of  the  mag 
netic  needle,  and  the  geographical  lore  of  the 
ancients ;  and  Fonseca,  nettled,  never  forgave  the 
affront.  It  is  an  unpardonable  offence  to  the  jealous, 
small  souls  about  him  for  a  great  man  to  fathom 
the  mysteries  of  nature,  and  succeed  in  utilising 
them  for  the  good  of  his  kind.  Bishop  Fonseca 
may  have  been  thoroughly  conscientious  in  his 
antagonism,  and  truly  have  estimated  Columbus  as 
a  visionary  stranger,  more  or  less  mad,  disapproving 
wholly  of  the  squandering  of  Queen  Isabella's  jewels 
on  such  rash  enterprises  as  the  fitting  out  of  even 
three  small  vessels  to  sail  away  on  unknown  seas, 
and  probably  never  return.  Proved  in  the  wrong, 
both  in  judgment  and  knowledge,  the  most  natural 
action  of  the  bishop  was  to  take  up  another  Italian 
sailor  in  Amerigo  Vespucci,  and  maintain  a  promi 
nent  position  in  the  direction  of  Colonial  affairs  at 
home  in  Spain.  To  hamper,  wound,  and  delay  the 
progress  of  a  more  noble  intelligence,  —  such  was  the 
mission  on  earth  of  the  Bishop  Fonseca.  His  char 
acter  does  not  shine,  viewed  in  any  light,  unless  on 
the  side  of  good  resulting  from  evil  in  the  fact  of 
his  bestowing  favour  on  Vespucci  and  his  nephew, 
in  contrast  with  his  active  hostility  to  Columbus. 

Every  age  has  its  chorus  of  doubters,  of  whom 
Juan  Kodriguez  de  Fonseca  is  a  fair  type.  "  Impos 
sible  ! "  we  protest.  "  Your  scheme  is  impracticable ; 


192  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

utterly  futile  !  Engineers,  inventors,  and  philosophers 
have  never  attempted  it ;  or  if  they  have  done  so, 
they  have  speedily  abandoned  the  very  idea  as  worse 
than  useless.  Why  can  you  not  be  tranquil,  and  go 
on  in  the  old  way  ? "  Then  the  Juggernaut  chariot 
of  steam-power,  electricity,  mountain-piercing,  and 
isthmus-channelling  passes  over  and  crushes  us  to 
silence,  while  future  generations  will  smile  at  our 
own  narrow-minded  views  of  palpable  truths. 

At  the  outset  of  this  second  voyage  the  Florentine 
was  overshadowed  by  the  brilliant  Spanish  cavalier, 
Ojeda.  Born  at  Cuenca,  and  reared  as  a  page  of  the 
Duke  of  Medina  Coeli,  Ojeda  was  the  embodiment 
of  the  medieval  knight,  —  whether  amusing  Queen 
Isabella  and  the  ladies  of  her  court  by  his  prowess 
in  all  games,  and  the  performance  of  such  acrobatic 
feats  as  climbing  to  the  beam  of  a  church  belfry, 
singing  the  ballads  of  his  native  land,  or  practising 
the  graceful  exercises,  with  trained  steeds,  learned 
from  the  Arabs.  He  was  small  of  stature,  supple, 
agile,  skilled  in  the  manipulation  of  all  weapons, 
valiant  of  spirit,  headstrong  in  temperament,  and 
ready  for  any  career  of  glory  or  adventure  which 
fate  might  have  in  store  for  him.  His  nature  had 
been  tempered  by  a  certain  amount  of  experience 
in  Moorish  warfare ;  and  he  had  shared  the  second 
voyage  of  Columbus  in  1493,  when  he  commanded 
an  expedition  sent  to  explore  the  interior  of  Hispan- 
iola,  with  such  results  as  the  capture  of  the  chief 
Caonabo. 


THE   SECOND   VOYAGE.  193 

Vespucci  may  have  worn  a  talisman,  a  medallion, 
blessed  by  the  Florentine  bishop,  St.  Antonino,  as 
Ojeda  cherished  the  little  picture  of  the  Flemish 
Madonna,  before  which  the  soldier  prayed  devoutly, 
and  ultimately  enshrined  in  an  oratory,  built  in  an 
Indian  village  after  rescue  from  danger.  If  the 
virtue  of  preservation  from  peril  rests  in  blessed 
medals  and  precious  relics  sewed  up  in  tiny  parch 
ment  rolls,  inscribed  with  characters  of  mysterious 
import,  and  Vespucci  believed  in  them,  his  amulet 
was  more  efficacious  than  that  of  Ojeda.  Madama 
Lisabetta  possibly  tied  some  precious  token  of 
silver,  bearing  the  image  of  St.  John  the  Baptist,  or 
the  stamp  of  the  Florentine  lily,  around  the  neck  of 
her  third  son  in  childhood,  in  the  Vespucci  house 
on  the  Borgognissanti  at  Florence,  enjoining  him  to 
always  wear  it. 

The  later  career  of  Ojeda  fulfilled  the  promise  of 
adolescence,  in  the  bravery  and  recklessness  with 
which  he  despoiled  the  natives  of  Cumana  of  their 
household  utensils  and  hammocks  in  order  to  estab 
lish  his  colony  of  the  province  of  Coquibacoa,  quar 
relled  with  Diego  Nicuesa  over  the  settlement  of 
San  Domingo,  suffered  betrayal  and  imprisonment 
by  the  treachery  of  his  own  countrymen,  while 
unscrupulously  sowing  the  whirlwind  for  future 
colonists  by  fighting  the  Indians,  and  returning 
to  Spain  in  poverty.  Even  the  presence  of  the 
famous  Biscayan  sailor,  Juan  de  la  Cosa,  as  second 
officer,  served  to  further  obscure  Amerigo  Vespucci, 

13 


194  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

the  foreigner,  in  the  eyes  of  the  Spaniards,  on  this 
occasion. 

Juan  de  la  Cosa  was  a  most  valuable  aid  to  Alonzo 
da  Ojeda,  whose  knowledge  of  marine  laws  must 
have  been  very  imperfect.  Indeed,  the  experienced 
veteran,  deemed  a  Nestor  in  all  nautical  affairs  by 
his  contemporaries,  —  even  if  he  did  abandon  the 
helm  while  Columbus  slept,  with  notable  results  in 
the  history  of  colonisation,  —  filled  the  place  of  wise 
Jean  d'Auray,  the  Breton  pilot  on  that  voyage  of 
St.  Louis  to  Palestine,  when  the  archbishop  of  Bor 
deaux  held  the  rank  of  admiral.  The  sailor,  Juan 
de  la  Cosa,  is  still  a  warm  and  generous  personality. 
He  drew  charts  on  parchment  concerning  navigation 
with  much  skill,  so  that  it  was  boasted  of  him,  to 
gether  with  Andreas  Morales,  another  pilot,  that  they 
knew  the  tracks  of  the  sea,  in  cosmography,  as  well 
as  the  chambers  of  their  own  houses.  His  vanity  is 
reputed  to  have  made  him  feel  himself  to  be  the 
equal  of  Columbus.  Later,  associated  with  Eodrigo  de 
Bastides  in  another  voyage,  the  sovereigns  of  Spain 
granted  him  an  annual  pension,  drawn  from  the 
province  of  Uraba,  discovered  by  the  two,  and  when 
Ojeda  became  governor  of  New  Andalusia,  along 
the  Isthmus  of  Darien  through  the  Gulf  of  Urabia, 
extending  to  the  Cape  de  la  Vela,  —  Cosa,  as  his 
lieutenant,  was  appointed  alguazil,  mayor  of  the 
colony. 

Thus  the  royal  banners  were  hoisted  on  a  new  fleet 
of  cockle-shell  vessels,  and  Ojeda  departed  in  search 


THE   SECOND  VOYAGE.  195 

of  the  riches  of  the  East.  Doubtless  the  equipment 
was  the  same  as  that  of  Columbus,  and  did  not  lack 
a  surgeon,  a  notary,  an  armourer,  the  carpenter,  a 
calker,  a  cooper,  with  the  addition  of  the  horses 
destined  to  wear  steel  and  intimidate  the  savages. 
How  the  colours  of  the  picture  charm  the  eye,  —  still 
untarnished  by  the  lapse  of  years,  —  the  royal 
standard  fluttering  in  the  breeze,  the  blue  sea 
already  tossing  the  fragile  craft  about,  the  soldiers 
and  adventurers  gathered  on  deck  for  a  last  glance 
at  shore  and  home  !  Youth  —  bold,  imperious,  and 
ignorant,  armed  cap-a-pie,  in  the  person  of  the  in 
trepid  Alonzo  da  Ojeda  —  held  the  first  rank,  as  the 
ideal  of  romantic  enterprise  in  search  of  fame  and 
fortune,  destined  to  arouse  all  young  Spain  to  speedy 
emulation.  Juan  de  la  Cosa  represented  maturity, 
—  rashness  tempered  by  experience,  —  yet  drawn 
irresistibly  to  share  the  exploits  of  Ojeda  in  that 
wide  realm  of  adventure  opening  before  them  in  a 
new  world,  giving  purse  and  ultimately  life  in  the 
cause  of  the  restless  warrior,  who  made  pompous 
proclamations  in  the  name  of  the  king  to  bewildered 
Indians  on  landing  on  their  shores,  and  fought  duels 
with  rival  cavaliers.  Juan  de  la  Cosa,  slain  by  the 
poisoned  arrows  of  the  Caribs  while  defending  the 
turbulent  Ojeda,  affords  the  contemplation  of  one 
of  the  noblest  phases  of  humanity  amidst  all  the 
baseness,  intrigue,  and  jealousy  of  early  colonisation. 
The  picture  of  the  sailing  of  the  ships  loses  noth 
ing  of  richness  of  tone  if  the  verdict  of  a  later  day 


196  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

be  also  applied  to  it.  When  Corneille  visited  Mon 
sieur  de  Chalons,  the  former  secretary  of  the  queen's 
mother,  Marie  de'  Medici,  at  Eouen,  the  old  man 
said :  "  You  will  find  in  the  Spaniards  subjects 
which,  treated  according  to  our  taste,  and  in  your 
hands,  may  produce  great  results."  Was  not  the 
Cid  the  fruit  of  the  suggestion  in  French  literature  ? 

In  all  that  brave  company  gathered  together  on 
the  fleet,  weapons  flashing,  plumes  waving  on  hats, 
voices  mingling  in  animated  debate,  or  ringing  out 
sharply  in  tones  of  peremptory  command,  the  quiet 
and  sober  form  of  Amerigo  Vespucci  stands  re 
vealed.  In  an  old  edition  of  Bandini  there  is  a 
quaint  engraving  representing  Vespucci  in  the  garb 
of  a  Florentine  citizen,  making  observations  of  the 
starry  firmament  on  the  shore  of  South  America, 
with  the  aid  of  his  primitive  instruments,  while  the 
sailors  are  seated  on  the  ground  at  his  feet  with 
their  heads  supported  on  their  knees,  asleep,  and 
the  vessels  are  drawn  up  on  the  strand.  The  South 
ern  Cross  is  clearly  defined  in  the  sky,  as  a  sort  of 
jewelled  appendage,  and  a  medallion  portrait  of 
Dante  —  laurel-crowned  —  is  added  in  the  opposite 
corner,  probably  in  connection  with  his  own  famous 
lines  about  the  four  stars  which  formed  a  rhomboi- 
dal  form  (una  mandorla),  the  holy  lights,  cardinal 
virtues. 

Canovai  states :  — 

"All  the  equipment  of  Amerigo  in  these  difficult  re 
searches  consisted  of  a  quadrant,  an  astrolabe,  the  alma- 


Statue  of  Amerigo  Vespucci. 


THE   SECOND   VOYAGE.  197 

nac  of  Giovanni  da  Montereggio,  which  had  been  compiled 
according  to  the  meridian  of  the  city  of  Ferrara,  and  the 
Alfonsine  Tablets." 

Pearls  and  gold !  The  mirage  of  sunset  in  the 
west  beyond  the  sea !  To  win  a  future  of  ease, 
opulence,  and  gaiety,  by  means  of  this  voyage ;  such 
was  the  mutual  interest  which  rendered  all  these 
men  kin.  Has  the  world  changed  since  ?  They 
believed  the  words  of  Columbus  in  his  last  letter  to 
King  Ferdinand :  — 

"  Gold  is  a  thing  necessary  to  your  Majesty,  in  order  to 
fulfil  an  ancient  tradition  that  Jerusalem  must  be  recon 
structed  by  a  Spanish  monarch.  Gold  is  the  most  excel 
lent  of  metals.  What  becomes  of  those  gems  sought  at 
the  ends  of  the  earth  ?  They  are  sold,  and  thus  become 
converted  into  gold." 

Varnhagen  thus  gives  Vespucci's  account :  — 

"On  the  6th  of  May,  1499,  we  issued  forth  from  the 
port  of  Cadiz,  taking  our  course  toward  the  Cape  de 
Verde  Islands ;  and,  in  passing  in  sight  of  the  Grand 
Canary,  we  sailed  as  far  as  a  certain  isle  named  Fire 
(Feu),  where  we  took  in  a  store  of  wood  and  water.  We 
continued  our  voyage,  shaping  our  route  southwest. 
After  nine  days'  sailing  we  arrived  at  a  new  land,  which 
we  believed  to  be  a  continent,  and  a  continuation  of  the 
other  mentioned  on  our  first  voyage.  This  new  land  lay 
in  the  torrid  zone,  at  five  degrees  south  of  the  equinoc 
tial  line,  and  at  a  distance  of  five  hundred  leagues  south 
west  of  the  isles  we  have  mentioned.  We  observed  them 
after  the  27th  of  June  (read  the  21st),  when  the  sun  enters 


198  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

the  Tropic  of  Cancer,  and  the  days  are  equal  to  the  nights. 
The  earth  is  saturated  with  water,  and  irrigated  by  great 
rivers,  and  is  verdant,  and  covered  with  large  trees.  .  .  . 
After  making  several  detours  we  noticed  that  all  was 
covered  with  water,  and  every  spot  was  inundated.  Weigh 
ing  anchor  we  began  to  navigate  the  coast  east-south 
east  for  more  than  forty  leagues,  .  .  .  but  we  encountered 
a  current  so  strong  from  the  southeast  toward  the  north 
west  that  it  was  impossible  to  guide  our  course.  Owing 
to  these  inconveniences  we  resolved  to  retrace  our  way, 
and  to  steer  toward  the  northwest.  In  taking  this 
route  we  had  quitted  the  coast,  and  at  last  we  reached 
a  very  commodious  port,  at  the  entrance  of  which  was  a 
pretty  isle.  We  proceeded,  skirting  the  shore,  and  more 
than  once  it  happened  to  us  to  fight  the  natives,  as  they 
would  allow  us  to  take  nothing.  We  already  wished  to 
return  to  Spain,  because  it  was  nearly  a  year  that  we  had 
been  at  sea,  and  we  had  slender  provisions,  and  that  little 
sufficiently  damaged,  owing  to  the  great  heat,  as,  since  we 
had  left  the  Cape  de  Verde  Islands  until  now  we  had  navi 
gated  constantly  in  the  torrid  zone,  and  we  had  crossed 
the  equinoctial  line  twice.  As  I  have  already  stated,  we 
were  five  degrees  south  of  this,  and  we  were  under  the 
15°  of  north  latitude.  In  the  midst  of  these  cares  it 
pleased  the  Holy  Spirit  to  give  us  a  little  repose  after  so 
many  troubles.  Understand  that  being  in  search  of  some 
sheltered  port  to  repair  our  ships,  we  encountered  a  people 
who  received  us  as  good  friends,  and  we  were  informed 
that  they  had  a  quantity  of  fine  Oriental  pearls.  We  re 
mained  with  them  forty-seven  days,  and  we  bought  one 
hundred  and  nineteen  marcs  of  pearls  for  a  mere  trifle. 
At  the  expiration  of  the  forty-seven  days  we  took  leave  of 


THE   SECOND   VOYAGE.  199 

these  Indians,  whose  confidence  we  had  gained ;  we  left 
for  the  necessity  we  were  in  for  provisions,  and  we  went 
to  the  Isle  of  the  Antilles,  discovered  by  Christopher 
Columbus  several  years  before,  where  we  obtained  provi 
sions  and  stayed  for  two  months  and  seventeen  days,  dur 
ing  which  time  we  suffered  vexations  and  incurred  perils 
from  the  Christians  who  were  with  him  on  this  island, 
for  envy,  as  I  believe ;  all  of  which  I  keep  from  recount 
ing  for  brevity.  Leaving  this  place  on  the  22d  of  July, 
with  a  voyage  of  a  month  and  a  half,  we  re-entered  the 
port  of  Cadiz"  (1500). 

A  significant  fact  deserves  due  weight  in  connec 
tion  with  this  voyage.  In  Ojeda's  report  to  the 
sovereigns  he  mentions  having  sighted  English  ves 
sels  near  Coquibacoa.  The  Spanish  government  is 
reputed  to  have  been  rendered  suspicious  and 
alarmed  by  the  information,  while  no  record  has 
been  found  of  the  expedition  in  the  archives  of 
Henry  VII.  North  America  had  already  been 
discovered  by  John  Cabot  in  1497,  and  Newfound 
land  visited.  Who  were  the  English  of  that  day, 
reconnoitring  strange  coasts,  yet  giving  no  sign  ? 
Presumably  these  doughty  mariners  belonged  to  the 
crews  of  the  Cabots,  at  least.  This  clew  possesses 
value  in  the  tangled  web  of  men's  lives  of  those 
first  navigators,  comparable  with  Herrera,  chronicler 
of  the  West  Indies,  copying  data,  and,  believing 
that  Vespucci  had  accompanied  Ojeda  in  1499  on  a 
first  voyage,  changed  dates,  then,  finding  the  accounts 
of  the  two  men  so  different,  accused  Amerigo,  the 


200  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

foreigner,  of  imposture,  and  of  having  embroiled  the 
recital.  Alonzo  da  Ojeda  is  credited  with  reticence 
as  to  his  own  course  in  traversing  the  seas,  striking 
the  northern  coast  of  Brazil  first,  owing  to  the 
rival  claims  of  Portugal,  as  he  had  incurred  the 
penalty  of  paying  a  heavy  fine  for  infringement  on 
national  rights  on  a  previous  occasion,  while  Ves 
pucci's  descriptions  of  the  lands  visited  are  frank 
and  accurate.  Was  the  acquaintance  of  the  hold 
soldier  Ojeda  and  the  prudent  pilot  Amerigo  Ves 
pucci,  two  mortals  knit  together  by  the  bonds  of 
common  peril  in  making  the  same  voyage,  of  a  sym 
pathetic  character  ?  Did  they  respect,  like,  or  dis 
trust  each  other  ?  Who  knows  with  certainty  ?  They 
had  no  open  hostility  of  disagreement,  apparently, 
or  history  might  have  left  some  record  of  such  dis 
pute.  The  silence  of  Ojeda  on  certain  points  where 
Vespucci  speaks,  and  vice  versa,  was  reasonably 
cleared  up  by  the  deposition  of  Christobal  Garcia  of 
Palos,  made  in  October,  1515,  that,  while  he  was  at 
Hayti,  Ojeda  and  Cosa  arrived  on  board  of  a  small 
vessel,  having  lost  sight  of  some  of  the  fleet,  while 
others  had  purposely  remained  behind.  Francesco 
Bartolozzi,  in  his  critical  and  historical  researches 
of  the  discoveries  of  Amerigo  Vespucci,  expresses  a 
doubt  if  at  this  date  he  could  have  possessed  the 
capacities  requisite  to  command  a  fleet,  or  even  to 
assume  the  responsibility  of  a  first  pilot,  as  a  true 
son  of  the  sea,  following  his  natural  trade  ot 
mariner.  No  doubt  Ojeda  estimated  the  Florentine 


THE   SECOND  VOYAGE.  201 

as  a  man  of  altogether  secondary  importance  in  the 
expedition. 

In  the  subsequent  judicial  deposition  of  Ojeda 
before  the  Probanza  he  stated  that,  first,  he  dis 
covered  land  toward  the  south,  and  skirted  it  for 
two  hundred  leagues  as  far  as  Paria;  second,  he 
quitted  the  Gulf  of  Paria  by  the  mouth  of  the 
Dragon,  passed  the  Island  of  Margarita,  and  visited 
the  neighboring  shores  as  far  as  the  Isle  of  Giants  ; 
third,  he  discovered  the  Gulf  of  Venecia  (Mara- 
caibo),  and  the  province  of  Guinquibacoa ;  fourth, 
on  the  voyage  he  was  accompanied  by  Juan  de  la 
Cosa,  Amerigo  Vespucci,  and  other  pilots. 

The  Cape  Verde  Archipelago  awaited  Vespucci 
with  white  cliffs,  volcanic  ridges,  and  masses  of  rock 
rising  out  of  the  sea,  a  group  of  palms  blooming 
here  and  there,  leafless  acacias  with  long  spines, 
trailing  convolvulus,  and  gourds  thriving  in  an  arid 
soil.  Water  is  still  the  great  boon  of  existence  in 
the  Cape  Verde  group,  where  rain  does  not  fall  for  a 
year  sometimes,  and  the  negresses  pass  all  day  to 
the  wells,  sheltered  by  low-pitched  roofs,  bearing 
heavy  vessels  poised  on  their  heads,  while  the  sup 
ply  of  grateful  liquid  dwindles  in  July  and  August, 
and  vegetation  shrivels  to  desert  plants,  dust-laden 
and  wrinkled.  The  suggestion  is  picturesque  of 
those  early  vessels  halting  at  the  ports  of  the 
Canaries  and  the  Cape  Verde  for  a  supply  of  water 
before  sailing  away  to  unknown  regions.  Whether 
Ojeda's  fleet  on  this  occasion  touched  at  Fire 


202  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

Island  (Isle  du  Feu),  as  belonging  to  Spain,  or  at 
Iron  Island  (Isle  de  Fer),  as  claimed  by  Portugal, 
is  of  less  importance  than  that  the  parched  rocks 
yielded  a  little  of  their  precious  element  to  the 
mariners.  Inland  the  kingfisher  perched  on  the 
castor-oil  shrub  in  the  narrow  valleys  to  catch 
lizards  and  grasshoppers.  In  the  shallows  below 
the  cliffs  the  slug>  with  yellow  body,  purple-veined, 
fed  delicately  on  sea- weeds,  while  the  octopus 
lurked  in  the  pools  left  by  the  retiring  tide,  or  hid 
in  crevices  of  the  rocks,  a  greenish  monster,  chang 
ing  hue  to  red  or  brown  in  the  shock  of  any  alarm, 
and  prepared  to  protect  escape  by  ejecting  the 
opaque  fluid  of  its  ink-bag.  Vespucci  skirted,  with 
out  invading,  the  realm  of  animal  life,  and  the  tide 
flowed  in  once  more,  and  the  bird  took  flight  to 
another  bush. 

The  coast  of  Brazil  greeted  the  eye  of  Vespucci 
near  Aracaty,  the  Kio  Grande-do-Norte  forming  a 
vast  embouchure,  and  a  rain-flooded  region  extend 
ing  southward,  with  deflections  of  shore  toward 
Bahia-da-Traicao,  a  sterile  land  of  dunes,  brambles, 
the  bars  of  shallow  river  mouths,  matted  shrubs,  or 
stretches  of  mangroves,  and  occasional  cocoa-nut 
trees,  the  white  sands  of  Cape  St.  Eoque,  the  Gulf 
and  Isle  of  Maranhao,  and  the  low,  marshy  regions 
trending  to  the  delta  of  the  Amazon.  No  beacon 
light  gleamed  on  reef,  promontory,  or  shoal,  a  star 
at  Carbo  Frio,  Rio  Grande,  or  Para  in  that  day. 
The  equatorial  current  lay  in  wait  for  Vespucci,  and 


THE   SECOND   VOYAGE.  203 

drove  him  back  in  the  direction  of  the  low-lying 
inundated  lands  and  savannas  of  Cape  Orange  and 
French  Guiana.  It  was  not  for  America's  godfather, 
a  pioneer  in  the  sphere  of  discovery,  to  fathom  the 
mystery  of  the  wonderful  system  of  ocean  currents 
over  which  the  wise  men  of  many  nations  have  since 
pondered,  although  he  may  have  had  his  own  the 
ories  as  to  changes  of  density  in  the  sea  by  means  of 
evaporation,  and  degrees  of  temperature,  for  the  rest 
of  his  life.  The  permanent  winds  blowing  in  one  di 
rection  where  the  water  is  the  warmest  sends  the  sur 
face  volume  in  a  constant  stream  to  the  west.  This 
equatorial  current,  of  which  Ojeda's  fleet  was  igno 
rant,  impinging  on  the  coast  of  South  America  about 
Cape  St.  Koque,  splits  in  two,  the  northern  branch 
flowing  around  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  contracted  and 
condensed  by  the  Strait  of  Florida,  known  as  the 
Gulf  Stream,  while  the  remainder  becomes  a  gentler 
current  outside  of  the  islands,  spreading  over  the 
great  bight  between  North  and  South  America, 
affecting  Bermuda  and  the  Azores.  Later  Vespucci 
was  to  make  acquaintance  with  the  other  subdivi 
sion  of  the  equatorial  current,  more  complicated 
even  than  the  East  Australian  tide,  which  passes 
down  Brazil  south  of  Cape  St.  Koque,  parallel  with 
the  coast  of  South  America.  In  its  southern  exten 
sion  no  barrier  exists  corresponding  with  that  which 
circumscribes  and  moulds  the  northern  arm,  and 
gradually  widening  out  it  becomes  less  defined,  at 
the  same  time  acquiring  a  sufficient  easterly  deflec- 


204  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

tion  to  keep  it  out  from  the  land  until  it  is  finally 
almost  merged  in  the  great  easterly  drift-current 
which  sweeps  around  the  world,  occupying  a  belt 
varying  from  six  hundred  to  one  thousand  miles  in 
breadth  in  the  South  Seas.  Vespucci  surmised  little, 
as  yet,  of  the  great  water  hemispheres  of  the  globe, 
the  Arctic  Ocean,  North  Pacific,  South  Pacific,  and 
Antarctic  Basin.  The  laws  controlling  the  zone  of 
barometric  pressure  in  the  southern  hemisphere,  in 
the  condensation  of  vapours  and  the  welling  up  from 
submarine  depths  of  heavy  and  cold  water,  cannot 
have  been  realised  by  him.  Neither  had  he  dipped 
into  the  Guinea  current,  presumably,  as  it  courses 
along  the  African  coast  as  far  as  Benin  and  Biafra, 
a  warm  stream  from  two  hundred  and  fifty  to  three 
hundred  miles  in  width,  with  a  rate  of  twenty  or 
fifty  miles  a  day,  and  its  most  concentrated  force 
off  Cape  Palmas,  where  it  meets  the  northern  edge 
of  the  equatorial  current.  A  human  straw  was 
Vespucci,  caught  in  the  rapid  flow  of  counter  tides, 
the  zone  of  calms,  and  the  reflex  of  northeast  and 
southeast  trades ;  and  he  recognised  the  fact,  for  he 
wrote  to  Lorenzo  de'  Medici:  "We  encountered  a 
tide  of  the  sea,  which  was  so  large  and  flowed  with 
such  velocity  that  we  were  afraid,  and  incurred 
the  risk  of  great  peril.  The  current  was  such  that 
those  of  Gibraltar  and  Messina  resemble  a  pond  in 
comparison." 

Thus    impelled    toward    the    west-northwest   by 
the  equatorial  current  and  the  east-southeast  wind. 


THE   SECOND   VOYAGE.  205 

the  ships  were  swept  away  from  Cape  St.  Boque  and 
Touros,  and  gained  Port  Cayenne,  the  vicinity  of 
Paria  and  Dernarara.  The  muddy  waters  of  the 
Orinoco  greeted  Vespucci,  bringing  down  the  allu 
vial  deposit  of  the  mountains  in  a  tawny  flood  to 
stain  the  blue  sea,  but  told  him  nothing  of  the 
turtle  mothers  on  the  upper  branches  of  the  stream 
that  deposit  their  eggs  on  sandy  beaches  in  Febru 
ary  and  March,  a  harvest  for  the  Indians  and  prized, 
in  time, by  the. missionaries,  as  making  turtle-butter; 
such  liliputian  offspring  as  escape  destruction  and 
scramble  back  to  the  river  incurring  the  additional 
risk  of  being  snapped  up  by  attendant  baby  alliga 
tors,  alert  for  a  first  meal.  The  tonca  bean  did  not 
perfume  the  air  for  Vespucci  with  delicate  vanilla 
odors,  destined  to  become  dear  to  succeeding  gene 
rations  of  great  gentlemen  for  scenting  their  snuff, 
but  hid  in  safe  retreats  of  storm-riven,  rocky  ravines 
and  forest  nooks,  where  the  arborescent  ferns  thrive, 
the  arums  and  myrtles  cluster,  the  green  dracon- 
tium,  and  the  serrated  leaves  of  the  rothos  mingle 
with  ranks  of  tree  columns,  draped  with  masses  of 
bigonise,  dendrobia,  and  paullinse.  In  such  leafy 
haunts,  still  sacred  from  the  ruthless  intrusion  of 
the  foreigner,  the  native  wove  the  heliconias  into  a 
roof  above  his  hammock  for  a  noon  siesta  when  he 
strove  to  forget  the  torments  of  mosquitoes  and 
jeujeus  by  day,  and  the  zancudos  of  night,  or 
brought  down  to  the  coast  honey,  vegetable  dyes, 
and  sarsaparilla  roots,  dried  and  pressed  in  bundles. 


206  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

Some  profound  conviction  of  the  mighty  artery  of 
the  South  American  continent,  the  Orinoco,  and  its 
inland  resources,  in  contemplating  the  mass  of  turbid 
waters  sent  forth  into  the  sea,  must  have  occurred 
to  the  mind  of  Columbus  when  he  described  it  as 
flowing  from  the  eastern  Paradise. 

Trinidad  awaited  Vespucci,  southernmost  of  the 
West  Indian  Islands,  lying  across  the  delta  of  the 
Orinoco,  nearly  reaching  to  the  main  land  of  Vene 
zuela,  and  thus  forming  the  Gulf  of  Paria.  Blooming 
with  a  wealth  of  palms,  jasmine,  oranges,  Bourgain- 
vilias,  and  crotons,  purple,  gold,  and  russet,  is 
Trinidad  to  this  day.  The  acalyphia,  the  geographi 
cal  tree,  with  the  green  leaves  marked  with  white, 
like  a  map,  may  have  then  given  him  a  lesson. 
The  little  American  ants  were  surely  too  busy  to 
notice  his  advent,  unless  he  came  in  their  way,  —  the 
black  ant  making  nests  at  the  roots  of  plants ;  the 
red  ant,  of  military  instincts,  always  in  a  great  hurry, 
whether  dragging  along  a  dead  cockroach,  or  gather 
ing  in  a  tiny,  valiant  army  to  attack  a  big,  helpless 
worm ;  the  merciless  hunter  ant  raiding  in  tribes  on 
mice,  birds,  and  crickets ;  and  the  parasol  ant  mak 
ing  selection  of  tender  leaves  from  the  young  cacao, 
orange-trees,  and  yam,  wherewith  to  line  the  nursery. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  Island  of  Margarita,  fifteen 
leagues  from  the  coast,  strove  to  detain  America's 
godfather  in  the  realm  of  tropical  beauties  by  siren 
spells  of  dreaming  over  sea  depths,  where  pearls  of 
fabulous  size,  the  dew  of  heaven  fallen  between  the 


THE    SECOND   VOYAGE.  207 

shells  of  the  oyster  and  solidified,  according  to 
Pliny's  theory,  might  be  found,  and  wove  the 
meshes  of  cotton-hammocks  in  which  the  Spanish 
American  would  be  content  to  idle  away  existence 
with  a  banana,  a  store  of  dried  meat,  and  a  ciga 
rette.  Vespucci  passed  on  to  admire  the  fine  type 
of  the  natives  of  the  Island  of  Curacoa,  now  associ 
ated  with  the  liqueur  made  by  the  Dutch,  known  as 
the  Isle  des  Geants,  —  where  every  man  was  an  An 
taeus,  and  every  woman  a  Penthesilea,  to  him,  as  a 
classical  scholar,  — to  note  the  dwellings  of  the  Caribs 
of  Paria,  thatched  with  palm-leaves,  containing  mats, 
and  rudely  fashioned  furniture,  and  hold  intercourse, 
hostile  or  friendly,  with  the  peoples  of  Coquibacoa, 
Maracaibo,  the  western  shore  of  the  Gulf  of  Vene 
zuela,  and  unknown  lands  to  the  headland  of  Cape 
de  la  Vela. 

Instead  of  forming  romantic  attachments  to  the 
beautiful  Indian  maidens,  decked  with  bracelets  and 
necklaces  of  pearls,  and  plates  of  gold,  and  the  silken 
plumage  of  tropical  birds,  after  the  fashion  of  most 
of  the  early  adventurers,  Vespucci  made  practical 
observation  that  manioc  formed  the  bread  of  the 
aborigines  on  the  side  of  Paria.  He  stated  to  Lo 
renzo  de'  Medici:  "The  natives  are  unacquainted 
with  our  wheat  and  farinaceous  grains  ;  they  derive 
their  principal  nourishment  from  a  root  which  they 
reduce  to  flour,  and  which  they  call  inch  a,  others 
chambi,  and  others  igname."  The  word  "yucca" 
has  been  discerned  in  incha,  while  igname  designates 


208 


the  root  of  the  Dioscorea  alata,  described  by  Colum 
bus  under  the  name  of  ages,  much  as  the  enigma 
attributed  to  Vespucci  of  the  title  of  lariab  has  been 
finally  solved  as  meaning  Paria. 

The  three  JSocas,  the  narrow  channel  between 
Trinidad  and  the  coast  known  as  the  Boca  del  Ser- 
piente,  and  the  Boca  del  Drago,  the  northern 
entrance  of  the  gulf  of  Paria,  subdivided  into  the 
Monkey's  Passage,  those  of  the  Ship,  the  Egg,  and 
the  Boca  Grande,  welcomed  Vespucci,  as  well  as  the 
clear,  blue,  and  green  waters  of  the  Venezuelan  port 
of  La  Guayra,  where  the  Indians  in  canoes  utilised 
the  services  of  the  sucking  fish  (Echineis  remora), 
to  catch  others,  and  the  wide  Caribbean  Sea. 

It  seems  no  slight  matter  that  the  Florentine 
gentleman,  accustomed  from  infancy  to  see  the  day 
wane  in  pure  tints  of  citron  and  beryl  over  his 
native  Apennines,  should  have  crossed  the  ocean  on 
board  of  a  clumsy  vessel,  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
and  witnessed  the  full  effulgence  of  a  West  Indian 
sunset,  with  the  chain  of  fairy  isles  bathed  in  the 
glory  of  a  deeper  gold  and  crimson. 

In  place  of  the  cinque-cento  carvings  of  the  Medici 
palaces  he  found  the  ornamented  clay  vessels,  the 
calabashes,  and  ingeniously  wrought  figures  of  wax, 
bone,  or  fibrous  roots  of  a  new  world.  In  place  of 
Toscanelli's  gnomon  of  the  Florence  cathedral  send 
ing  an  arrow  of  light  through  the  dome  down  on 
the  pavement,  he  found  the  primitive  sun-dials  of 
Indian  villages.  In  place  of  the  mazy  dance  of  the 


THE   SECOND  VOYAGE.  209 

fire-flies  about  the  shadowy  terraces  of  Tuscan  gar 
dens,  on  June  evenings,  he  found  the  living  jewels 
of  phosphorescent  insects  amidst  the  tamarinds, 
ceiba,  light  foliage  of  the  jobo-tree,  and  flowers  of 
Cuba.  It  will  be  remembered  that  Cuba,  with  a 
chain  of  mountains  stretching  from  east  to  west,  nu 
merous  rivers,  savannas,  and  forests,  lying  opposite 
Hayti,  and  extending  in  the  length  of  seven  hun 
dred  miles  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  the  Straits  of 
Florida  northward,  is  described  as  an  island  on  the 
famous  map  of  Juan  de  la  Cosa  in  1500,  when  on 
the  12th  of  June,  1494,  Columbus  had  provoked  a 
sort  of  judicial  trial,  in  which  several  pilots,  mas 
ters,  and  sailors,  swore  that  they  believed  it  to  be 
a  continent  (tierra  firme). 

The  portrait  of  Vespucci  recurs  to  the  mind  of  the 
writer  in  the  quaint  engraving  of  the  old  book, 
discovered  on  the  shelves  of  the  musty  shop  in  the 
street  of  the  Watermelon  at  Florence  several  years 
ago,  with  the  Italian  astronomer  watching  the  stars, 
while  his  companions  sleep  at  his  feet.  Nautical 
charts,  papers,  —  possibly  log-books,  containing  the 
entry  of  distances  from  one  place  to  another,  of  the 
tides,  and  dangers  to  avoid  on  entering  ports,  — 
and  instruments  are  scattered  around.  If  Columbus 
trusted  to  the  guidance  of  the  magnetic  needle  and 
his  own  courage,  while  the  Cabots  attempted  to 
utilise  the  isogonic  lines  of  the  surface  of  the  globe, 
believing  them  to  be  invariable,  Vespucci  sought  a 
method  of  calculation  in  the  occultation  of  the  stars 

14 


210  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

and  their  lunar  distance.  The  measures  of  deter 
mining  longitude  have  remained  very  imperfect, 
almost  to  our  time. 

"  Amerigo  Vespucci  showed  the  superiority  and  perspi 
cacity  of  his  talent,"  says  Bartolozzi,  "  above  all  in  taking 
the  longitude  of  the  country,  when  he  was  in  America  on 
his  second  voyage,  hy  a  quite  new  astronomical  method, 
which  has  on  many  points  great  originality,  especially 
considering  that  he  had  few  of  the  means  necessary  to 
the  practice  of  this  most  difficult  science,  then  in  its 
infancy." 

In  his  letter  to  Lorenzo  de*  Medici,  Vespucci 
explains  very  concisely  the  method  invented  by 
him,  and  adopted  in  his  search  for  longitude,  but 
the  pursuit  cost  him  dear:  — 

"As  for  the  longitude,  I  say  that  I  experienced  so 
many  difficulties  in  finding  it  that  I  had  great  travail  to 
know  certainly  the  progress  I  had  made ;  and  the  more  I 
laboured,  I  found  no  better  way  than  to  study  at  night  the 
opposition  (or  antagonization)  of  one  planet  to  another, 
while  the  moon  moves  with  the  other  planets,  because  the 
planet  of  the  moon  moves  more  swiftly  than  any  other ; 
and  I  compared  the  almanac  of  Montereggio,  which  was 
composed  by  the  meridian  of  Ferrara,  making  it  agree 
with  the  tables  of  King  Don  Alfonso.  Afterward,  for 
many  nights  when  I  made  calculations,  —  one  night,  among 
others,  being  the  23d  of  August,  1499,  when  the  moon 
was  in  conjunction  with  Mars,  which  (according  to  the 
almanac)  should  be  at  midnight,  or  a  half  hour  before,  — 
I  observed  that  when  the  moon  rose  on  our  horizon,  which 


THE    SECOND   VOYAGE.  211 

was  one  hour  and  a  half  after  the  sun  had  inclined,  she 
had  moved  toward  the  east.  I  repeat,  the  moon  was 
about  a  degree  more  to  the  east  than  Mars,  and  a  few 
minutes  later,  and  at  midnight,  she  was  five  degrees  and 
a  half  toward  the  east,  more  or  less ;  from  which  I  made 
the  calculation,  —  if  24  equalled  360  degrees,  which  would 
come  to  five  and  half  hours,  I  found  it  would  give  me  82£ 
degrees,  and  so  much  as  I  found  of  longitude  from  the 
meridian  of  Cadiz,  allowing  sixteen  leagues  and  two-thirds 
to  every  degree,  equalling  15,466§  miles;  the  reason  why 
I  gave  sixteen  and  two-thirds  leagues  for  every  degree  was 
because,  according  to  Ptolemy  and  Alfagrano,  the  earth 
revolves  24,000  miles,  equalling  6,000  leagues,  which, 
dividing  by  360  degrees,  allots  to  each  degree  16|  leagues ; 
and  this  estimate  I  have  verified  many  times  with  the 
pilot's  point ;  I  have  found  it  true  and  good." 

Francesco  Bartolozzi  continues  :  — 

"In  his  letter,  Amerigo  recounts  the  many  attempts 
he  had  made  in  vain  to  find  the  longitude,  until  the  night 
of  the  23d  of  August,  —  that  is,  two  months  after  he 
had  landed  on  the  coast,  where  he  never  remained  quiet, 
scouring  the  country  on  all  sides,  and  therefore  was  uncer 
tain  where  he  was  in  regard  to  latitude,  until  he  invented 
the  system  described.  Having  sailed  between  the  6°  of 
latitude  A,  and  the  12°  B,  one  may  suppose  he  was  some 
where  about  the  3°  B,  which  combines  fairly  well  with 
his  calculations.  On  the  day  mentioned  (August  23, 1499), 
in  that  latitude,  the  sun  must  have  set  about  six  o'clock 
and  four  minutes ;  consequently,  the  first  observation 
made  by  Vespucci  was  when  the  moon  was  on  the  horizon, 
—  one  and  a  half  hours  after  sunset,  at  seven  o'clock  and 


212  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

thirty-four  minutes,  —  and  there  lacked  about  four  hours 
twenty-six  minutes  to  midnight,  a  fact  which  Vespucci 
did  not  remark  at  the  second  observation ;  and  which  it 
is  necessary  to  know  in  order  to  follow  him  in  such  an 
experiment,  and  about  which  he  is  very  concise.  He 
says  he  found  the  moon  more  to  the  west  than  Mars  by 
a  degree  and  some  minutes  at  his  first  observation ;  and 
at  midnight  five  hours  and  a  half  more  westerly,  which 
would  give  a  false  movement  of  separation,  and  absolutely 
impossible  to  be  accomplished  in  this  given  time.  Vespucci 
erred  most  in  the  measure  he  took ;  and  this  was  inevi 
table,  owing  to  the  circumstances.  But  what  causes  the 
greatest  marvel  is  that  on  his  fourth  voyage  he  meas 
ured  the  longitude  without  mistake,  which  proves  that  he 
had  become  a  skilful  observer,  and  had  perfected  his 
method.  Only  the  astronomer,  learned  in  the  science  and 
its  slow  progress,  can  estimate  the  true  value  of  Amerigo's 
inventions  and  discovery.  Passing  entire  nights  observing 
the  heavens  as  he  did,  he  realised  that  he  could  not  rely 
on  the  imperfect  tables  of  the  date.  He  interrogated 
Nature  to  learn  with  what  velocity  the  moon  detached 
herself  from  the  planet  Mars.  From  this  known  law  (or 
rule),  he  laboriously  extracted  the  method  to  find  at  what 
precise  moment  of  his  reckoning  the  conjunction  of  the  two 
planets  might  occur,  as  below  his  horizon  and  invisible  to 
him.  He  compared  the  time  and  space  interposed  between 
the  two  observations,  and  from  this  comparison  extracted 
the  equivalent  to  the  space  ;  and  summing  up  the  time 
measured  with  the  time  deducted,  he  found  the  measure 
of  that  portion  of  the  arch  of  the  equator  intercepted 
between  the  two  meridians  and  that  point  of  the  heavens 
where  the  celestial  phenomenon  took  place.  Thus  he  first 


THE   SECOND  VOYAGE.  213 

introduced  the  measurement  of  time  in  astronomy  in  com 
paring  celestial  distances.  The  author  of  the  "  History  of 
Astronomy  "  (Jean  Sylvain  Bailly),  ignoring  what  Vespucci 
had  done,  attributes  this  fact  to  William,  fourth  landgrave 
of  Hesse,  which,  perfected,  was  to  become  the  basis  of 
modern  astronomy,  and  was  due  to  the  inventive  genius 
of  Vespucci." 

The  sort  of  clock  used  by  Vespucci  is  unknown. 
He  does  not  mention  any  time-piece,  but  it  is  in 
ferred  that  he  must  have  had  more  system  in  observ 
ing  the  sky  at  night,  to  note  the  instant  of  midnight, 
as  the  noonday,  than  Montereggio,  and  to  have  relied 
rather  on  the  moment  when  the  equator  was  in  its 
meridian  for  observations  than  such  instruments  as 
the  watch  of  Archdeacon  Pacifico  of  Verona,  regu 
lated  by  a  balance,  in  the  ninth  century,  or  the 
toothed  wheels  moved  by  a  weight. 

The  moon  shone  on  Vespucci  in  the  tropics,  with 
a  splendour  capable  of  poisoning  fish,  as  it  had  so  often 
illuminated  the  towers  and  squares  of  Florence. 
America's  godfather  studying  the  stars,  as  depicted 
in  the  engraving  of  the  old  book,  appears  in  an 
aspect  of  marked  intellectual  superiority  to  his  com 
panions,  for  a  clearness  and  quickness  of  thought, 
while  not  a  thorough  astronomer. 

The  meagre  results  of  the  second  voyage  are  well 
known.  Ojeda,  with  all  expenses  deducted,  had  five 
hundred  ducats  to  divide  among  fifty-five  adven 
turers.  Bandini  states :  — 


214  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

"Vespucci  again  reached  Cadiz  in  June  of  the  year 
1500,  after  thirteen  months  voyaging.  He  was  warmly 
received  in  this  port,  and  especially  by  King  Ferdinand 
and  Queen  Isabella,  to  whom  he  brought  beautiful  jewels, 
pearls,  precious  stones,  and  rare  animals.  The  fame  of 
the  felicitous  discoveries  of  our  illustrious  fellow-citizen 
having  spread  through  Europe  the  Signoria  of  the  Flor 
entine  republic  immediately  decided  to  make  a  public 
demonstration  of  satisfaction  and  of  rejoicing  over  so  great 
a  son,  and  sent  to  his  house  the  lamps  which  were  kept 
lighted  for  three  days  and  nights  consecutively,  reputing 
this  as  a  great  honour,  conceded  by  means  of  solemn 
voting,  and  by  a  decree  of  the  Fathers,  to  worthy 
countrymen." 

Vespucci  was  destined  never  to  return  to  reap 
other  recognition  of  his  fellow-citizens.  Like  Dante, 
he  finished  his  span  in  exile,  although  his  thoughts 
must  have  yearned  toward  "the  fairest  and  most 
famous  daughter  of  Kome,  Florence  ...  in  which 
I  was  born,  and  nourished  even  to  the  summit  of 
my  life." 


CHAPTER  XL 

THE   THIRD   VOYAGE. 

THE  warmth  of  Vespucci's  reception  on  his  return 
to  Spain  after  the  second  voyage,  according  to  Ban- 
dini,  is  doubtful.  It  occurred  at  a  time  when  the 
riches  brought  by  all  early  navigators,  including 
Columbus,  were  eclipsed  by  the  return  of  Vasco  di 
Gama  to  Lisbon  from  the  East,  in  1500,  freighted 
with  gems,  spices,  and  drugs.  Bandini  continues : 

"  Emmanuel  the  Great,  who  reigned  in  Portugal,  a  prince 
of  vast  and  noble  gifts  and  elevated  thoughts,  astonished 
at  the  accounts  of  the  achievements  of  Amerigo,  wished  to 
have  in  his  dominions  so  eminent  a  man,  and  invited  him 
with  the  offer  of  titles  and  honours  to  make  fresh  discov 
eries  in  his  service,  and  therefore  sent  a  special  legate  to 
solicit  that  he  would  come  to  Lisbon,  where  the  sovereign 
eagerly  awaited  him.  Amerigo,  who  saw  himself  re 
spected  and  beloved  in  the  court  of  Spain,  wishing  neither 
to  affront  these  sovereigns,  nor  the  Portuguese  monarch, 
feigned  illness,  making  the  usual  excuses  in  similar  cases ; 
but  the  urgent  entreaties  of  Bartolomeo  Giocondo,  a  Flor 
entine  friend,  moved  him  to  relent,  and,  not  to  incur  the 
displeasure  of  the  King  of  Spain,  he  departed  secretly." 

This  view  of  the  matter  may  have  been  gratify 
ing  to  a  fellow-countryman,  but  the  truth  was  that 


216  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

Spain  witnessed  the  withdrawal  of  Vespucci  to 
enlist  under  a  rival  state  with  the  utmost  indiffer 
ence,  acknowledging  his  capacity  as  a  skilful  pilot, 
and  receiving  him  back,  subsequently,  at  the  court 
of  Ferdinand,  without  especial  rancour.  Whether  he 
went,  or  came,  as  a  foreigner,  no  wrathful  king 
struck  his  name  from  the  roll  of  the  nobility  of  the 
land,  or  effaced  the  scutcheon  of  the  family  mansion 
in  the  province,  as  was  the  fate  of  the  Portuguese 
Magellan,  so  that  the  ominous  words  might  be  read 
at  Sabrosa  by  future  generations:  Easadas  por 
ordem  de  El  Rey. 

Little  Portugal,  in  her  rich  and  marvellous  history, 
furnishes  a  companion  volume  of  equal  interest  to 
that  of  mediaeval  Spain,  the  pages  glowing  with 
valiant  deeds  of  warfare,  conquest,  and  discovery. 
Here  we  find  the  mythical  Enriques,  founding  a 
kingdom,  like  that  of  Leon  and  Castile,  by  the 
might  of  his  sword ;  King  Sancho,  the  city  builder 
embellishing  his  domain,  and  improving  agriculture ; 
John  I.,  head  of  the  house  of  Avis,  scheming  to  reach 
India  by  sea,  sailing  around  the  continent  of  Africa, 
possibly  finding  a  route  to  Cathay  in  Europe  in  a 
northeasterly  direction,  and  sending  Martin  Lopez, 
accordingly,  to  pass  the  North  Cape,  and  enter  an 
unexplored  region  with  the  discovery  of  a  large 
island  north  of  Kussia,  which  still  bears  the  name 
he  gave  it  of  Nova-Zembla ;  or  that  sovereign  who 
in  1513  sent  the  Pope  a  gift  of  twelve  cardinals, 
life  size,  in  sugar,  three  hundred  sticks  of  candy  of 


THE   THIRD  VOYAGE.  217 

three  bracelet,  length  each,  one  hundred   boxes  of 
sugar  with  cinnamon,  cloves,  and  perfumes,  and  a 
live  Moor  of  Calicut,  four  feet  tall,  with  jewels  in 
his  ears.     (Let  us  hope  that  Leo  X.  was  as  fond  of 
sweets  as  a  Turk.)      There  the   leaf   records  that 
Albuquerque  established  a  province  at  Pernambuco 
and   fought   the    Dutch   to   retain  it;   Diego   Cam 
sighted  the  Congo  in  1484;  Bartolomeo  Diaz  reached 
Algoa  Bay  and  doubled  the  Cabo  Tormentoso,  Cape 
of   Good  Hope,  in  1486 ;  or  Camoens  mused  over 
his  epic  in  the  cavern  of  Macao  near  Canton.     Two 
pictures  of  the  book  of  Portuguese  history  furnish  a 
frontispiece.     The  first  is  Don  Henry,  the .  naviga 
tor,  a  man  of  robust  frame,  white  complexion,  severe 
countenance,  self-control  of  a  violent  temper,  patient, 
circumspect  in  speech,  and  simple  in  dress,  in  his 
retreat  of  Sagres,  surrounding  himself  with  math 
ematicians  and  astronomers.      The  sea  must  have 
murmured  wonderful  tales  of  unknown  lands  in  the 
ear  of  Prince  Henry,  like  a  shell,  and  even  a  refrain 
of  the  deeds  of  future  years  of  Portuguese  mariners 
to  whom  he  would  impart  an  impulse  of  seeking  new 
routes :  Pedro  Alvarez  Cabral  discovering  Brazil  in 
1500,  Gaspar  Corte  Real,  Labrador  in  1501 ;  Joao 
da  Nova  Castilla  sighting  St.  Helena  and  Ascension 
in  1506 ;  Tristao  da  Cunha,  the  island  of  the  same 
name ;  Ruy  Pereira  Continho  exploring  Madagascar 
and  Mauritius  in  1507 ;  Lorenzo  de  Almeida  touch 
ing  at  the  Maldive  Isles  in  the  same  year ;  Diego 
Lopez  de  Segueira  visiting  Malacca  and  Sumatra  in 


218  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

1512  ;  Francesco  Ferrao,  the  Moluccas  in  1513 ;  while 
Pedro  de  Mascaremhas  reached  the  Isle  of  Bourbon 
in  1516.  Duarti  Coelho  coasted  Siam  and  Cochin 
China  in  1517  ;  and  Fernao  Perez  de  Andrade  estab 
lished  himself  at  Canton,  and  visited  Pekin  about  the 
same  date.  Madeira  was  Prince  Henry's  garden, 
sought  by  Juan  Gonzales  and  Tristan  Vaz  in  his  ser 
vice,  who  found  the  fields  covered  with  fennel  (fun- 
chai),  and  setting  the  woods  on  fire,  to  render  the 
ground  fit  for  cultivation,  caused  flames  reputed  to 
have  burned  for  seven  years.  Prince  Henry  drew 
hence  stores  of  cedar,  and  rose-colored  yew,  to  be 
used  in  building  edifices  in  Portugal,  bows,  and  the 
wood  of  guns,  and  sent  sugar-cane  from  Sicily  to 
be  planted  for  the  new  colonies.  « 

Lisbon  is  the  second  picture,  —  not  as  it  charms 
every  traveller,  a  city  built  on  an  amphitheatre  of 
hills,  with  palaces,  convents,  and  gardens  extending 
to  a  countryside  which  blooms  afresh  with  violets, 
narcissus,  and  saffron  after  autumn  rains,  the  rocks  of 
Cintra  in  the  distance,  and  Belem  with  its  park,  and 
Gothic  cathedral,  while  narrow  streets  lead  down  to 
the  Port,  abode  of  silversmiths,  artisans,  sailors,  and 
women  selling  oranges  and  chestnuts  from  Colares, 
and  below  is  the  Tagus  and  shipping,  —  but  as  it  ap 
peared  on  that  memorable  morning  of  All-Saints, 
November  1,  1755,  at  eight  o'clock,  when  the  sky 
grew  pale  and  wan,  the  earth  trembled,  walls  rocked, 
fissures  in  the  soil  yawned,  and  the  river  rose,  so  that 
the  end  of  the  world  seemed  at  hand.  The  shock 


Statue  of  Lomi{o  de   Medici. 


THE   THIRD   VOYAGE.  219 

was  felt  in  the  Alps,  Thuringia,  Sweden ;  the  hot 
springs  of  Toplitz  were  dried  up,  and  flowed  back 
tinged  with  iron  ochre ;  the  Antilles,  the  Canadian 
lakes ;  and  the  sea  rose  at  Cadiz,  in  a  wave  sixty- 
four  feet  high,  and  of  an  awful  blackness. 

Amerigo  Vespucci  entered  the  port  between  these 
two  periods.  Don  Henry,  the  navigator,  was  dead, 
and  the  great  earthquake  did  not  occur  for  centuries. 
The  beautiful  city,  glowing  with  southern  color 
and  ornate  architecture,  embowered  in  myrtle,  citron, 
and  orange-trees,  smiled  on  the  Florentine,  verifying 
the  boast:  Que  ndo  tern  visto  Lisboa  ndo  tern  visto 
cousa  boa.  Vespucci  found  himself  in  the  land 
of  a  vigorous  and  intelligent  race,  with  crinkly  hair, 
large-featured,  thick-set,  and  lacking  Spanish  grace. 
King  John  II.,  who  had  refused  the  services  of 
Columbus,  died  in  1495.  Emmanuel  the  Fortunate 
succeeded,  and  desirous  of  pursuing  the  policy  of 
his  ancestors,  of  seeking  the  riches  of  India  by  a 
western  course,  the  Turkish  invasion  of  the  east 
ern  Mediterranean  having  blocked  earlier  routes, 
Vespucci  was  well  received,  three  vessels  fitted  out, 
and  full  justice  accorded  to  his  experience ;  for  the 
name  of  the  Portuguese  commander  has  remained 
obscure,  although  he  is  supposed  to  have  been  a 
certain  Don  Nuno  Manuel.  The  letter  to  Lorenzo 
de'  Medici  of  the  year  1502  reveals  the  character  of 
Vespucci,  as  an  enlightened  observer  of  nature  in 
her  manifold  aspects,  in  such  a  fine  phase  that  it 
does  not  seem  superfluous  to  insert  it  here  :  — 


220 


"  The  last  writing  to  your  Magnificence  was  from  the 
coast  of  Guinea,  from  a  place  called  the  Green  Cape  (Capo 
Verde),  from  which  you  already  know  the  early  part  of  my 
voyage,  and  for  the  present,  therefore,  I  shall  briefly 
relate  the  half,  or  latter  part,  up  to  the  present.  We  left 
the  said  Cape  Verde  at  first  without  difficulty,  and  had 
ready  everything  necessary,  such  as  water  and  wood,  and 
other  stores  to  sail  into  the  gulf  of  the  sea  in  search  of 
new  lands;  and  we  sailed  so  well  with  the  southwest 
wind  (libeccio)  that  in  sixty-four  days  I  reached  a  new 
land  which  we  found  to  be  terra  firma,  for  many  reasons 
that  I  will  relate  in  proceeding.  We  sailed  along  this  land 
(the  coast)  about  eight  hundred  leagues,  all  the  time  at 
a  J  to  libeccio  toward  the  west,  and  found  it  to  be  full 
of  inhabitants,  where  I  noted  very  marvellous  works  of 
God  and  nature,  which  I  determined  to  make  known  to 
your  Magnificence,  as  I  have  always  done  on  my  former 
voyages.  We  sailed  so  far  in  these  seas  that  we  entered 
the  Torrid  Zone,  and  passed  the  equinoctial  line  from  the 
part  of  the  Austral,  and  the  Tropic  of  Capricorn,  —  so  far 
that  the  South  Pole  was  fifty  degrees  high  on  my  horizon, 
and  as  much  with  my  latitude  from  the  equinoctial  line, 
and  we  navigated  for  four  months  and  twenty-seven  days, 
but  never  saw  the  Arctic  Pole,  or  the  Great  and  Little 
Bear,  although  I  discovered  toward  the  South  many 
bodies  of  very  clear  stars  which  are  always  invisible  for 
those  of  the  North,  and  noted  the  wonderful  complication 
of  their  movements  and  size,  taking  the  diameters  of  their 
circles,  and  figuring  them  with  geometric  reckoning,  and 
other  motions  in  the  known  heavens,  which  would  be  peril 
ous  things  to  write  about ;  but  of  the  most  notable  matters  I 
observed  on  this  voyage  I  have  gathered  together  in  a  little 


THE   THIRD  VOYAGE.  221 

work  (operetta)  of  mine,  that  when  I  have  leisure  and 
repose  I  may  occupy  myself  with  them  in  order  to  leave 
some  fame  behind  me  after  death.  I  was  on  the  verge  of 
sending  you  an  extract  from  it,  but  this  exalted  sovereign 
holds  me  back ;  when  I  return  I  will  do  so.  In  conclu 
sion,  I  reached  the  Antipodes,  which  by  my  calculation 
forms  a  fourth  part  of  the  world.  My  zenith  made  a 
spherical  right  angle  for  the  inhabitants  of  this  region, 
which  is  in  latitude  40°. 

"  Let  us  come  to  the  description  of  the  country,  of  its 
inhabitants,  and  the  animals  and  plants,  and  of  other 
matters  which  we  found  in  those  places  of  human  life. 
This  land  is  very  pleasing,  and  filled  with  an  infinity  of 
green  trees,  large,  and  which  never  lose  their  leaves,  and 
all  the  year  give  forth  most  delightful  and  aromatic  per 
fumes,  producing  fruits  many  of  them  good  to  the  taste, 
and  salutary  for  the  body,  and  fields  producing  much 
grass  and  flowers,  and  roots  very  agreeable,  so  that  some 
times  I  have  wondered  at  the  sweet  odours,  and  the  flavour 
of  the  fruits  and  roots,  thinking  I  must  be  near  the 
Earthly  Paradise.  What  could  be  said  as  to  the  numbers 
of  birds  and  their  plumage,  colours,  songs,  and  the  many 
varieties  of  forms  and  kinds  1  I  do  not  wish  to  enlarge 
on  this,  because,  no  doubt,  I  should  not  be  credited. 
Who  could  enumerate  the  sylvan  animals,  so  many  pairs 
of  lions  and  panthers,  and  cats,  not  of  Spain  but  the 
Antipodes,  lynxes,  baboons,  and  marmosets  (or  apes)  of 
such  diversity,  as  well  as  other  creatures  we  saw,  that  I 
believe  the  different  species  could  not  have  entered  Noah's 
Ark ;  and  numerous  wild  hogs,  goats,  stags,  deer,  hare, 
and  rabbits ;  but  of  domestic  brutes  we  did  not  notice  one. 
Let  us  come  to  the  reasoning  animals.  We  found  the 


222  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

land  inhabited  by  people  entirely  naked,  both  men  and 
women,  without  any  sense  of  shame.  They  are  well  made 
and  proportioned,  white  in  colour,  with  black  hair,  and 
little  or  no  beard.  I  laboured  hard  to  understand  their 
life  and  customs;  therefore  for  twenty-seven  days  I  ate 
and  slept  among  them,  and  all  that  I  learned  is  the  fol 
lowing:  they  had  no  laws  or  faith  whatever,  and  live 
according  to  nature.  They  are  ignorant  of  the  immortal 
ity  of  the  soul,  hold  no  property  of  their  own  because  all 
is  in  common  ;  they  have  no  kingdoms  or  provinces ;  have 
no  king,  obey  no  one,  each  is  lord  of  himself;  have  no 
friendship,  no  kindness,  which  would  be  unnecessary  be 
cause  not  in  their  code.  They  live  in  common  in  houses 
made  like  huts,  very  large ;  and  for  people  who  have  no 
iron,  or  any  other  metal,  one  may  say  that  their  habita 
tions  are  truly  admirable,  because  I  have  seen  buildings 
two  hundred  and  fifty  feet  long  and  thirty  feet  wide, 
most  skilfully  constructed,  and  in  one  of  these  abodes 
dwelt  five  or  six  hundred  souls.  They  use  nets  woven  of 
cotton,  and  go  to  sleep  in  the  air  without  any  other  cover 
ing;  they  eat  seated  on  the  ground,  their  food  consisting 
of  roots  of  herbs,  and  very  good  fruits,  much  fish,  abun 
dance  of  cherries,  and  crabs,  oysters,  lobsters,  and  shrimps, 
and  many  other  articles  produced  by  the  sea.  The  meat 
they  eat  is  mostly  human  flesh  in  a  fashion  to  be  told. 
When  they  can  procure  other  meat,  of  animals  and  birds, 
they  eat  it,  but  they  have  little  because  they  have  no 
dogs,  and  the  forests  are  dense,  and  full  of  cruel  wild 
beasts,  and  for  this  reason  they  avoid  the  woods  except  in 
large  companies.  The  men  have  the  habit  of  piercing  the 
lips  and  cheeks,  and  inserting  bones  and  stones  in  these 
holes,  and  the  apertures  are  not  small,  for  the  greater  part 


THE   THIRD  VOYAGE.  223 

of  the  men  have  at  least  three  holes,  and  some  seven,  and 
even  nine,  in  which  they  place  stones  of  green  alabaster 
and  white  which  are  half  a  palm  long,  and  as  large  as  a 
Catalan  plum,  which  appears  very  unnatural.  They  say 
this  is  done  to  appear  more  haughty  and  savage ;  in  fact,  it 
is  an  ugly  custom.  They  are  a  prolific  race.  .  .  .  They  live 
long  because  we  have  known  many  who  were  surrounded  by 
four  generations  of  descendants.  They  do  not  know  how 
to  count  the  days  or  the  months  and  year,  save  that  they 
tell  the  time  by  the  lunar  months,  and  when  they  wish 
to  take  any  reckoning  they  place  a  stone  for  every  moon. 
One  of  the  most  aged  men  signed  to  me  with  stones  that 
he  had  lived  seventeen  hundred  moons,  which,  it  appears 
to  me,  would  make  one  hundred  and  thirty-two  years, 
counting  thirteen  moons  to  the  year.  They  are  a  belli 
cose  and  cruel  people,  and  all  their  arms  are,  as  Petrarch 
says,  "commessi  al  vento,"  —  arrows,  darts,  and  stones  ;  and 
they  use  no  defence  for  their  bodies,  being  naked  as  they 
were  born,  neither  do  they  hold  any  order  in  their  warfare 
save  to  follow  the  counsel  of  the  aged  men  ;  and  when  they 
fight  they  kill  each  other  brutally  and  those  left  masters 
of  the  field  bury  the  fallen  of  their  own  band,  and  split 
up  and  eat  their  enemies ;  and  some  they  take  for  slaves 
to  their  houses.  .  .  .  We  bought  of  them  ten  slaves  who 
were  appointed  for  sacrifice.  "We  took  away  many  from 
them.  I  know  not  if  they  corrected  or  amended  the  evil ; 
and  what  astonished  me  most  was  the  cause  of  their  mak 
ing  war  one  on  another,  as  they  have  no  property,  or 
empire,  or  kingdom,  and  know  nothing  of  the  greed  of 
acquiring  or  reigning,  which  seem  to  me  the  usual  cause 
of  wars,  and  of  every  disordered  act.  When  we  asked 
them  the  reason  they  could  give  no  other  explanation  than 
that  they  had  exchanged  insults. 


224  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

"  In  conclusion  it  is  surely  a  bestial  thing,  and  one  man 
confessed  he  had  eaten  more  than  two  hundred  bodies. 
The  land  is  temperate  and  healthful ;  because  during  all 
the  time  we  were  there,  which  was  ten  months,  not 
one  of  us  died,  and  very  few  fell  ill.  As  I  said  of  the 
natives,  they  are  long-lived,  and  feel  no  infirmities  or  pes 
tilence  of  corruption  of  air;  the  doctors  would  have  a  bad 
time  in  this  place.  But  we  were  only  sent  with  the  aim 
of  discovery.  .  .  .  The  natives  esteem  nothing,  save  orna 
ments  of  feathers  and  bones ;  and  I  hope  the  king,  before 
many  years  have  elapsed,  will  again  send  to  visit  the  land, 
which  would  bring  great  profit  to  Portugal.  We  found  a 
vast  quantity  of  Brazil  wood,  many  trees  all  ready  to  load 
such  ships  as  are  to-day  in  the  sea  without  any  expense 
whatever,  and  the  same  amount  of  cassia.  We  saw  crys 
tal,  and  there  were  an  infinite  variety  of  flavours  and  odours 
of  spices  and  perfumes,  although  I  do  not  know  them. 
The  men  of  the  country  tell  miraculous  tales  as  to  gold, 
metals,  and  drugs  ;  but  I  am  one  of  those,  like  St.  Thomas, 
who  believe  slowly ;  time  will  do  all.  The  sky  was  clear 
for  the  most  part,  and  adorned  with  many  bright  stars, 
and  all  of  them  I  have  observed,  and  noted  their  orbits. 
All  this  is  very  brief,  and  only  the  resume  (capita  rerum] 
of  the  wonders  I  have  beheld  in  this  region.  I  leave 
many  other  matters  which  are  worthy  of  description,  not 
to  be  prolix,  and  because  all  the  details  of  my  voyage  you 
will  find  in  miniature.  For  the  present  I  am  still  at  Lis 
bon  waiting  what  the  king  decides  to  do  with  me.  May 
it  please  God  that  what  follows  shall  be  for  His  holy 
service  and  the  help  of  my  soul." 

The  Florentine  gentleman  reveals  several  curious 
traits  in  this  letter  to  a  friend.  His  hint  that  it  would 


THE   THIKD  VOYAGE.  225 

be  dangerous  to  say  too  much  about  the  movement 
of  celestial  bodies,  which  a  Medici  might  readily 
understand,  is  worthy  of  a  precursor  of  Galileo.  He 
does  not  express  himself  with  the  religious  fervour 
of  the  sailor  Columbus,  or  the  bigoted  Spanish  knight 
Ojeda,  invoking  the  aid  of  the  Madonna,  yet  his 
allusions  to  the  Supreme  Being  are  reverent  and 
dignified.  The  sly  mention  of  Brazil  as  a  poor  -field 
for  the  doctors  might  be  made  by  a  modern  traveller. 
Proclaiming  himself  a  doubting  St.  Thomas  explains 
much  in  his  career. 

The  third  voyage  had  other  importance.  To  once 
more  quote  Varnhagen  :  — 

"  Vespucci  made  his  third  voyage  across  the  seas  in  the 
service  of  Portugal,  when  he  decided  to  return  to  the  land 
of  pearls  (Paria).  The  three  caravels  left  Lisbon  on  the 
14th  of  May,  1501  (in  the  letter  of  Soderini  the  10), 
and  took  their  course  toward  the  Canaries,  without  touch 
ing  there,  steering  for  the  shoals  of  Pargos,  which  are 
near  the  coast  of  Africa,  where  they  took  on  board  a  pro 
vision  of  fish,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  Portuguese 
ships  when  they  started  on  voyages  of  discovery.  After 
three  days  the  caravels  continued  their  route,  making  first 
the  port  of  Bezequiche,  or  Beseneque,  a  little  to  the  south 
east  of  the  Cape  de  Verde,  where  the  French  colony  of 
Gorea  is  founded,  to  take  on  board  water,  and  wood  to 
burn,  of  which  they  had  need.  They  left  this  port  of 
Beseneque  and  took  a  direction  southwest,  and  after  sail 
ing  for  sixty-seven  days,  —  during  forty-four  of  which 
they  experienced  very  bad  weather,  —  they  finally  found 
land  in  latitude  five  degrees  to  the  south  of  the  equinoctial 

15 


226  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

line.  They  cast  anchor  on  the  17th  of  August,  having 
sighted  land  on  the  previous  day,  the  f§te  of  Saint  Roch, 
whose  name  was  given  to  the  cape,  which  it  still  keeps  in 
our  time.  The  caravels  cast  anchor  near  Cape  Saint  Roch 
on  the  17th  of  August  (one  reads  erroneously  the  7th  in 
the  letter  to  Lorenzo),  and  took  possession  of  the  country, 
which  was  fertile,  in  the  name  of  the  king.  It  appeared 
to  be  inhabited.  The  next  day  (August  18)  they  again 
disembarked  to  renew  their  provision  of  water.  They 
saw  the  natives  gathered  in  great  numbers  on  the  summit 
of  a  hill,  from  whence  they  dared  not  descend.  As  it  was 
already  late  they  contented  themselves  with  leaving  on 
the  beach  bells  and  little  mirrors,  and  withdrawing  on 
board ;  immediately  they  perceived  the  Indians  approach 
and  take  the  trinkets,  with  much  admiration.  The  next 
morning  (Aug.  19)  they  observed  on  the  coast  much 
smoke,  rising  in  different  places.  The  mariners  believed 
they  were  called  by  these  signals,  and  saw  the  Indians, 
but  the  latter  still  held  aloof.  Then  two  of  the  fleet  vol 
unteered  to  go  among  the  natives  with  little  articles  of 
commerce.  The  captain  consented  on  condition  that  they 
should  return  in  five  days.  But  seven  days  passed  with 
out  their  coming  back.  The  Indians  rarely  showed  them 
selves  on  the  strand,  and  then  had  a  suspicious  and 
sinister  aspect.  Finally,  on  the  seventh  day  (Aug.  26) 
they  took  the  resolution  to  once  more  disembark,  and  the 
Indians  sent  their  women  among  the  sailors.  One  of  the 
latter  ventured  to  mingle  with  them  when  the  women 
surrounded  him,  and  one  of  the  number  advanced,  armed 
with  a  large  stick,  with  a  single  blow  of  which  she  frac 
tured  his  skull,  and  laid  him  dead.  The  others  then 
seized  and  dragged  him  toward  the  mountain,  whence 


THE   THIRD  VOYAGE.  227 

the  Indians  begun  to  flock,  shooting  arrows  at  the  other 
sailors.  The  latter,  in  the  midst  of  so  much  confusion, 
had  sufficient  difficulty  in  regaining  their  barks  and  keep 
ing  their  weapons.  Happily  they  were  able  to  fire  four 
rounds  of  cannon,  which  frightened  the  natives  and  made 
them  retire.  But  these  withdrew  to  the  mountain  and 
began  to  cut  up  the  body  of  their  Christian  victim,  to 
show  the  fragments,  and  to  roast  them.  From  this  the 
fate  of  the  first  two  mariners  was  fully  realised.  The  crew 
demanded  vengeance  for  these  acts  of  barbarity,  but  the 
chief  of  the  fleet  believing  that  no  good  would  result, 
pursued  his  voyage.  They  skirted  the  coast  east-south 
east,  that  is  to  say,  in  the  direction  of  the  Cape  Saint  Augus 
tine,  to  which  they  gave  its  name,  to  celebrate  the  day  of 
discovery  (Aug.  28). 

"  Having  doubled  Cape  Santo  Augostino,  the  little  fleet 
followed  the  shore  southwest,  landing  frequently,  and  com 
municating  with  many  of  the  inhabitants.  Assuredly  they 
discovered  the  mouth  of  the  San  Francisco  River  on  the 
4th  of  October,  and  the  port  of  Bahia  (of  All  Saints)  on 
the  1st  of  November.  Vespucci  says,  '  In  sailing  we  dis 
cerned  the  people  on  the  shore,  who  gazed  at  our  vessels 
with  wonder.  We  approached,  and,  after  casting  anchor 
in  a  convenient  place,  we  went  ashore,  and  we  found  the 
natives  of  better  condition  than  the  last.  .  .  .  We  remained 
five  days.  .  .  .  We  proposed  to  take  two  men  with  us  as 
interpreters,  and  three  offered  to  go  very  willingly/ 

"  The  fleet  followed  the  coast  in  a  southerly  direction, 
and  probably  discovered  the  Cape  of  St.  Thom^,  on  the 
21st  of  December,  the  port  of  Rio  Janeiro  January  1,  then 
the  port  of  the  Bay  of  Kings  (Angra  dos  Reis)  on  the  6th, 
the  Isle  of  St.  Sebastian  on  the  20th,  and  the  vicinity  of 


228 

St.  Vincent  on  the  22d  of  the  same  month.  In  sailing 
still  southward  the  vessels  paused  at  the  port  of  Cananea, 
where  they  left  a  Portuguese  exile,  who  was  alive  in  these 
regions  thirty  years  later.  They  still  followed  the  shore, 
and  sought  repose  in  another  southern  port,  where  the 
Great  Bear  was  visible,  very  low  on  the  horizon.  The 
three  caravels  left  this  port  on  the  15th  of  February,  1502, 
and  went  southeast  at  a  venture,  by  the  advice  of  Vespucci, 
whose  words  we  copy  :  — 

" '  We  had  sailed  far  in  this  direction,  when  on  April 
3d  we  found  ourselves  already  under  a  high  latitude, 
about  52  degrees  south,  and  a  distance  of  five  hundred 
leagues  to  the  southeast  of  the  port  we  had  left.  That 
day  there  burst  a  tempest,  and  the  sea  was  so  high  we 
were  obliged  to  furl  all  our  sails,  and  to  run  with  bare 
masts,  with  a  very  strong  wind  southwest,  and  a  fearful 
surge  of  billows ;  such  was  the  storm  that  we  were  in 
great  terror.  The  nights  became  very  long ;  that  of  April 
7  was  fifteen  hours.  .  .  .  The  same  day  in  the  midst  of 
the  gale  we  sighted  a  new  land.  We  skirted  the  coast 
about  twenty  leagues,  and  we  found  it  very  savage.  We 
saw  no  inhabitants,  and  could  descry  no  port,  and  that,  as 
I  believe,  because  the  cold  was  so  great  we  could  not  sup 
port  it.  In  the  presence  of  this  imminent  peril,  and  with 
the  density  of  the  fog  such  that  from  our  ship  we  were 
scarcely  able  to  distinguish  the  others,  we  resolved  to 
make  a  signal  to  the  fleet  to  sail  with  the  wind,  and  return 
to  Portugal.  And  the  decision  was  a  wise  one,  for  had 
we  remained  longer,  no  doubt  we  should  have  all  been 
lost.  That  night  and  the  ensuing  day  the  storm  was  so 
terrible  that  we  thought  it  would  finish  us.  We  made 
vows  of  undertaking  pilgrimages,  and  other  ceremonies, 
after  the  custom  of  sailors  under  similar  circumstances.' 


THE  THIRD   VOYAGE.  229 

"Quitting  these  inhospitable  regions,  where  the  fog 
made  the  day  of  April  7  appear  longer  than  our  astro 
nomical  calculations,  the  three  caravels  pursued  a  course 
northeast.  They  sailed  toward  the  port  of  Serra  Leoa 
(Sierra  Leone),  where  they  arrived  on  May  10th.  One  of 
the  caravels  caught  fire,  and  became  useless ;  and  after  a 
delay  of  fifteen  days  they  departed  for  the  Azores.  They 
reached  that  point  toward  the  end  of  July,  and  rested 
fifteen  days,  when  they  made  sail  for  Lisbon,  which  they 
gained  on  September  7th  (1502),  after  an  absence  of  six 
teen  months  (we  read  fifteen  months  in  the  two  letters 
of  Vespucci),  having  sailed  for  fifteen  days,  in  the  high 
southern  latitudes,  without  sighting  the  polar  star,  nor 
any  other  of  the  Great  or  Little  Bear." 

The  Cape  Verde  Islands  again  received  Vespucci, 
where  the  highly  picturesque  meeting  with  Cabral 
took  place, — America's  godfather  going  forth  empty- 
handed,  and  the  Portuguese  commander  returning 
from  Hindustan  with  a  cargo  of  gems,  myrrh,  cam 
phor,  amber,  mastic,  porcelain,  and  other  valuable 
commodities. 

Brazil  awaited  Vespucci,  —  a  sea-border  blooming 
with  the  purple  flowers,  thick  milky  leaves,  and 
long  branches,  like  knotted  black  cords  of  the 
ipomcea,  —  a  marshy  region,  realm  of  the  jatrophia 
armed  with  spines,  the  aninga,  cowslips,  violet- 
tinted  blossoms  of  bushes  of  clitoria,  frutescenti, 
and  yellow  Alamanda  cathartica,  lagunes  fringed  by 
Sophora  lottorales,  with  a  carpet  of  Cyprus  and  hedy- 
otis  on  the  wet  soil ;  hot  plains,  a  belt  of  grasses 


230  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

stretching  up  to  hill-slopes,  where  the  llama  feeds,  — 
such  was  the  new  land.  The  forest  defied  Vespucci 
to  penetrate  its  secrets,  with  walls  of  verdure  and 
serried  ranks  of  lofty  trees,  towering  into  domes  of 
green,  countless  parasite  plants  of  the  cactus  and 
orchid  tribes  taking  root  on  trunk  and  branch,  and 
vines  forming  cables  across  the  lower  spaces,  re 
splendent  with  the  gold  and  snowy  hues  of  flowers 
clustering  in  tufts,  pendent  plumes,  pyramidal 
masses,  and  arches  exhaling  heavy  fragrance. 

The  wild  creatures  peered  at  Vespucci  through 
the  curtain  of  leaves,  —  the  jaguar  sharpening  his 
claws  on  the  bark  of  a  tree,  true  cat-fashion,  before 
pursuing  the  little  peccaries  in  a  herd  at  midnight, 
as  they  rushed  through  the  underbrush,  or  sent  the 
tapir  floundering  into  the  river  to  tell  his  fish- 
friends,  the  alambari  (sprats),  the  dour  ados,  the 
Brazilian  salmon,  in  armour  of  black  and  gold  at 
the  foot  of  cataracts,  and  the  otters,  of  his  latest 
narrow  escape.  The  monkeys  assuredly  mocked  at 
the  Florentine  gentleman,  —  the  black  and  white 
saki,  the  guariba  (a  bearded  old  oracle),  capuchin, 
sapajou,  and  titi  chattering  sociably  over  jatahy 
beans  and  capad  nuts.  The  great  ant-eater  slowly 
pursued  his  way.  The  boa- constrictor  watched  for 
prey,  while  his  cousin  the  sucurin  lurked  in  pools 
ten  metres  long ;  the  cobra  cascaval  climbed  obsta 
cles  with  the  terrific  velocity  of  flight,  and  the  coral 
snake  coiled  its  body  ready  to  spring  on  foes. 

The   birds  flitted  on  their  own  affairs,  —  those 


THE   THIKD   VOYAGE.  231 

model  parents  the  parrots,  having  hatched  their 
eggs  in  the  crevices  of  rocks  and  branches,  teaching 
their  offspring  to  feed  on  bananas  and  the  kernel  of 
guavas  and  palm-nuts ;  the  momots,  very  reserved, 
and  dwelling  in  the  depths  of  the  woods ;  those 
living  rainbows  of  plumage,  the  macaws,  trogons, 
orioles,  and  toucans,  flying  from  tree  to  tree ;  and 
the  duck-tribe,  spreading  metallic  feathers  of  purple 
and  green  lustre  over  nests  built  near  the  water 
courses. 

A  swift  revelation  of  the  teeming  life  of  this  new 
world  dazzled  Vespucci,  as  he  evinced  in  his  letters, 
—  some  intuition  of  the  perpetual  warfare  waged  on 
one  another  in  the  struggle  of  existence,  and  the 
mimicry  of  nature  to  evade  extinction  in  caterpil 
lars  resembling  dry  twigs,  moths  like  bark  or  veined 
leaves,  cassidte  with  the  semblance  of  burnished 
drops  of  dew  on  foliage,  pearly  gold  in  tint,  and 
the  villanous  hunting  spider  motionless  on  plants, 
feigning  to  be  only  a  flower  bud ;  such  kindred  as 
demons  with  shells  and  spiny  tibia  spinning  a 
ribboned  web  on  the  agave  to  catch  wasps  and 
grasshoppers,  and  weaving  orange-colored  silken 
meshes  across  paths.  Gorgeous  beetles  must  have 
trotted  along  his  route,  and  butterflies  of  every 
shade  fluttered  about  his  head.  The  humming-birds 
darted  into  the  open,  the  gems  known  as  nature's 
caprice  in  jewelry,  —  emerald,  topaz,  and  ruby, — 
called  picaflores  by  the  Spaniards,  chupaflores  by  the 
Brazilians,  frous-frous  by  the  Creoles  of  the  Antilles, 


232  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

and  "  rays  of  sunshine  "  by  the  Indians,  —  their  plu 
mage  serving  women  for  necklaces,  weaving  mantles 
for  the  Peruvians  and  Mexicans,  and  made  into 
little  pictures  of  saints  by  the  early  missionaries. 
They  failed  to  show  Vespucci  the  nest,  the  size  of 
half  an  apricot,  lined  with  down,  and  attached  to 
a  bough  like  a  tuft  of  moss,  containing  two  eggs 
the  size  of  peas.  The  prodigal  wealth  of  vegetation 
breathed  a  subtle  meaning  to  Vespucci  of  hidden 
stores  of  balsams,  gums,  medicinal  barks  and  herbs ; 
the  manioc  to  furnish  the  farinha  of  future  colo 
nists,  the  cacaoyer,  the  palms  from  the  cocoanut, 
gift  of  the  gods,  the  royal  palm,  with  its  edible 
fruit,  useful  fibre,  and  wine-yielding  stem ;  and  the 
ayri-assu,  eight  metres  high,  with  hard  wood,  util 
ised  for  making  bows  by  the  natives,  to  the  stumpy 
aricuri,  capable  of  hat  and  basket  fashioning,  and 
the  gurirei  of  sandy  wastes,  lowly  and  bent,  with 
orange-red  leaves  used  for  brooms,  —  a  humble 
brother  of  the  Euterpe  andicola,  flourishing  on 
abrupt  acclivities,  or  the  Euterpe  precatoria  clinging 
to  warm  plains,  even  when  inundated. 

When  sudden  darkness  fell  the  little  frog  Hyla, 
sitting  on  a  blade  of  grass  began  to  croak,  crickets 
chirped,  and  the  forest  took  up  the  nocturnal  chorus 
in  the  moaning  of  monkeys,  the  clamour  of  birds, 
and  the  howling  of  animals  prolonged  to  those  weird 
echoes  that  made  the  Indians  whisper  of  the  voices 
of  demons  and  spirits. 

Vespucci  took  ship,  braving  the  equatorial  cur- 


THE   THIRD   VOYAGE.  233 

rents,  and  steered  southward  along  this  coast,  with 
such  changes  of  course  as  were  evidently  agreed 
upon  by  his  companions  in  order  not  to  infringe  on 
the  claims  of  Spain.  The  most  remarkable  feature 
of  these  early  voyages  was  the  sea  luring  the  men 
forth  in  cockle-shells,  with  siren  wiles  of  caressing 
breezes,  to  find  Asia  in  the  faith  of  Columbus'  creed 
that  the  world  is  small,  and  then  as  doubt  and 
amazement  perplexed  their  intelligence  at  the  vast 
realm  stretching  before  them,  thwarting  their  pro 
gress  by  tempests  and  counter  currents  as  the 
Spirit  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  resented  the  intru 
sion  of  adventurous  mariners  on  savage  solitudes 
in  Camoens'  poem.  Wrecked,  buffeted,  and  impover 
ished,  they  gained  a  knowledge  of  the  globe  when 
they  appeared  to  have  lost  all.  The  storm  assailed 
Vespucci,  the  nights  were  long,  the  waves  ran  high, 
and  the  crew  fulfilled  the  words  of  the  Psalmist, 
believing  their  hour  had  come;  for  the  cold  sleet 
froze  the  blood,  and  America's  godfather  had  sailed 
nearer  to  the  Antarctic  Pole  than  any  European,  at 
least,  except  Bartolomeo  Diaz. 

Through  the  gusts  of  snow  and  low-drifting  fog 
South  Georgia  Island  loomed  on  the  anxious  gaze  of 
Vespucci,  ninety-six  miles  in  length,  and  ten  miles 
wide,  with  ice-mantled  crags,  and  hollows  where 
moss,  grass,  and  the  wild  burnet  grow,  and  a  single 
land-bird,  the  Anthus  correndera,  has  a  lonely 
existenca 

Is  it  a  trifling  evidence  of  courage  that  Vespucci, 


234  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

taking  the  lead,  crossed  four  thousand  miles  of 
ocean  to  Sierra  Leone  without  error  of  calculation  ? 
He  attains  a  true  grandeur  of  heroism  in  the  achieve 
ment.  Here  one  of  the  battered  little  vessels  had 
to  be  abandoned  and  burned. 

Lisbon,  on  her  amphitheatre  of  hills,  with  the 
Tagus  flowing  below,  received  him  back  without 
enthusiasm.  A  few  days  later  two  caravels  entered 
the  port  of  Lisbon  laden  with  a  rich  cargo  of  spices 
from  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  and  India,  commanded 
by  Jo&o  da  Nova. 

Pope  Alexander  VI.  in  the  year  1493  had  issued 
a  bull  conceding  to  Spain  all  territory  discovered  in 
the  West  from  180°,  beginning  from  one  hundred 
leagues  from  the  Azores,  and  to  Portugal  all  lands 
to  the  east  of  180°.  These  limits  were  modified  at 
a  later  date.  The  Pontiff  thus  rendered  aid  to  nau 
tical  astronomy  and  terrestrial  magnetism  by  the 
human  presumption  of  reaching  forth  his  spiritual 
sceptre  into  the  unknown  regions  of  the  earth,  and 
dividing  portions  between  two  rival  States. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE   FOURTH   VOYAGE. 

KING  EMMANUEL  of  Portugal  employed  Amerigo 
Vespucci  on  a  second  expedition.  History  recounts 
the  acts  of  princes  rather  than  their  motives  and 
personal  opinions.  Whatever  the  true  estimate  may 
have  been  in  which  the  Portuguese  monarch  held 
Vespucci,  he  decided  to  use  the  services  of  the  for 
eigner  as  a  pawn  on  his  chess-board  in  the  fresh 
enterprise  of  one  of  the  two  fleets  fitted  out  by  Por 
tugal  in  1503  to  seek  a  passage  to  the  East  by  way  of 
the  Brazilian  coast.  The  first  fleet  was  commanded 
by  Gonzales  Coelho,  and  the  other  by  Cristoval 
Jaques.  Vespucci  was  given  charge  of  one  of  the 
six  vessels  under  Coelho.  The  Varnhagen  narrative 
is  as  follows  :  — 

"Vespucci  states  that  the  day  of  departure  was  May  10, 
1503,  but  if  attention  is  paid  to  the  events  which  trans 
pired  subsequently  at  the  Island  of  Fernan  de  Noronha 
on  August  10th,  it  may  be  more  readily  believed  that  the 
date  of  sailing  was  June  10th.  Gonzalo  Coelho  com 
manded  the  fleet.  After  a  delay  of  thirteen  days  at  one 
of  the  Cape  de  Verde  group,  the  chief  of  the  squadron 
made  a  southeasterly  course,  seeking  to  sight  the  coast  of 
Sierra  Leone,  probably  to  make  sure  of  being  able  to  gain 


236  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

the  Cape  of  San  Agostino,  as  many  pilots  have  done  later 
in  the  passage  to  Brazil,  and  not,  as  Vespucci  suspected, 
with  the  intention  of  visiting  a  miserable  place  and  dis 
playing  six  ships.  However,  the  chief  wished  to  pause 
here,  but  after  four  days  of  beating  about  he  failed  to  dis 
cern  the  land,  and  continued  his  route  toward  the  south 
west.  They  crossed  the  line,  and  on  August  10th,  when 
they  found  themselves  at  three  degrees  of  south  latitude 
(they  must  have  sailed  at  least  five  hundred  leagues,  and 
not  three  hundred,  as  we  read,  by  mistake  no  doubt,  in 
the  communications  to  Soderini),  they  saw  distinctly  on 
the  horizon  an  island  which  can  have  been  no  other  than 
that  of  Fernando  de  Noronha.  The  leading  ship,  of  three 
hundred  tons,  struck  on  a  reef,  but  was  fortunately  saved. 
Vespucci  was  at  a  distance  of  four  leagues  from  the  isle, 
and  he  received  orders  to  go  with  his  vessel  in  search  of 
a  port.  He  obeyed,  and  speedily  lost  sight  of  the  other 
caravels.  He  did  not  discern  a  sail  on  the  sea  for  eight 
days,  and  then  he  resolved  to  go  and  meet  it,  in  the  dread 
of  not  being  noticed,  in  turn.  The  two  ships  returned 
to  the  isle,  took  on  board  a  supply  of  fresh  water,  and 
decided  to  seek  the  port  of  Bahia,  already  discovered  on 
the  previous  voyage,  and  where,  according  to  their  instruc 
tions,  they  were  to  reunite  in  case  of  separation.  They 
reached  Bahia  together,  after  a  voyage  of  seventeen  days. 
They  stayed  here  for  two  months  and  four  days,  awaiting, 
in  vain,  the  three  other  vessels.  Weary  of  such  delay, 
Vespucci  and  the  other  commander  concluded  to  follow 
the  coast  further ;  and  continuing  southward,  after  having 
held  intercourse  with  the  natives  on  several  occasions, 
they  paused  at  a  port  which  must  have  been  Cape  Frio. 
They  found  in  this  place  an  abundance  of  dye-wood 


THE   FOURTH   VOYAGE.  237 

(brtsil),  with  which  they  loaded  the  two  vessels,  and 
where  they  remained  five  months.  Before  departing, 
Vespucci  and  his  colleague  agreed  to  establish  here  a  little 
factory,  with  twenty-four  armed  men  in  charge,  in  a  for 
tress  furnished  with  twelve  cannon.  After  a  passage  of 
seventy-seven  days  the  two  ships  arrived  at  Lisbon  on 
June  18th,  1504.  They  had  not  the  slightest  trace  of  the 
others.  These  last  did  not  return  until  September,  when 
Vespucci  believed  they  must  have  been  all  lost." 

The  reefs  of  the  island  of  Fernando  Noronha 
awaited  the  leading  ship,  —  a  conical  hill  verdant 
with  laurel-like  trees,  redolent  of  pink  flowers.  Here, 
while  the  craft  was  being  eased  off  the  rocks,  Ves 
pucci  noted  the  tameness  of  the  birds  as  readily 
caught  in  the  hand, —  a  fact  mentioned  by  later 
naturalists.  The  bay  of  All  Saints  (Bahia)  again 
received  the  Florentine  gentleman,  blooming  with 
geranium  and  wood-sorrel  inland,  the  sea-pen  bend 
ing  on  its  elastic  axis  at  low  tide  along  muddy 
shores,  while  the  brown  lizard  of  the  sands  feigned 
death  if  molested,  or  hibernated  in  safe  nooks  like 
the  toads  and  snails,  drought  being  the  equivalent 
of  cold  in  such  latitudes. 

The  trees  of  bre'sil-wood  grew  at  Cape  Frio  to 
furnish  cargoes  for  Vespucci's  little  vessel ;  the  best 
quality,  mir.in,  valued  for  the  red  bark,  and  blossom 
ing  with  white  flowers,  the  second,  the  assti,  hav 
ing  a  rose-tinted  trunk,  straight  and  tall,  and  the 
brasileto  producing  an  inferior  dye.  Vespucci  tar 
ried  five  months  in  this  port,  scanning  the  horizon 


238  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

for  the  missing  companion  ships  scattered  by  storms, 
and  organising  the  factory,  which  lasted  until  1511. 
One  wonders  what  messages  the  land  whispered  into 
his  attentive  ear  of  the  jaca,  the  caoutchouc  sap, 
the  pine -apple,  resins,  astringent  leaves,  and  the 
mate  congouha  of  South  Brazil,  destined  to  solace 
future  settlers  by  the  tea  brewed  from  the  foliage  of 
the  top  branches.  The  condor  may  have  swept 
across  his  range  of  vision,  teaching  the  young  birds 
hatched  out  of  the  two  large,  white  eggs  laid  on  the 
shelf  of  rock,  to  attain  the  flight  of  their  species 
after  a  year  of  growth  as  fledglings,  ranging 
from  the  Straits  of  Magellan,  the  precipices  of 
Port  Desire,  and  the  cliffs  of  the  Kio  Negro  as 
far  as  eight  degrees  north  of  the  equator,  and  retir 
ing  to  the  Cordilleras  in  summer  heat.  Sea-fowl 
haunted  every  inlet,  but  the  wild  turkey,  the 
seriema  of  the  sandy  plains,  must  have  been  beyond 
his  ken,  as  the  guanaco  roaming  to  Cape  Horn,  and 
the  stealthy  puma  tracking  prey.  Did  he  make 
acquaintance  with  the  armadillo  and  the  copliia,  a 
reptile  with  the  combined  qualities  of  rattlesnake 
and  viper  ?  Far  away  extended  Patagonia,  basalt, 
lava,  and  deposits  of  gigantic  shells  bespeaking  a  date 
when  South  America  had  monsters  since  dwindled 
to  monkeys  and  gnawers,  and  small  rodents  swarmed 
as  in  Syria.  The  tiny  mice  people  dwelling  in  the 
thickets  of  the  valleys,  and  drinking  dew,  knew 
nothing  of  the  arrival  of  Amerigo  Vespucci ;  neither 
did  the  little  foxes  that  subsist  on  a  mouse  diet. 


THE  FOURTH  VOYAGE.  239 

In  moist  ravines  grew  that  mysterious  link  in  the 
vegetable  kingdom,  the  banana,  with  its  rapid-spring 
ing  stalk,  wide-spreading  leaves,  and  beneficent 
fruit  of  the  sages  and  of  Paradise,  also  compared  to 
sweet  shaving-soap  in  flavor,  by  a  modern  English 
author.  Whence  came  this  gift  to  man,  the  genus 
Musa,  placed  at  the  head  of  nutritive  plants  by 
Amarasinha,  and  forbidden  to  his  soldiers  by  Alex 
ander  the  Great,  as  growing  on  the  borders  of  the 
Hyphasus  ?  Asia  has  five  varieties,  and  the  Indian 
Archipelago  sixteen.  Energetic  travellers  in  the 
tropics  would  fain  conquer  the  indolence  of  man  by 
the  destruction  of  the  banana  of  centuries,  as  afford 
ing  such  ample  food,  both  cooked  and  raw.  Was 
the  first  banana  of  the  land  a  truly  indigenous 
American  plant,  as  the  domesticated  horse  was 
found  among  the  Indians  west  of  the  Missouri 
before  the  Clark  expedition  ?  Was  it  brought  to 
America  from  the  Canary  Islands,  as  is  suggested  by 
some  botanists,  in  the  same  way  that  the  cassava 
was  introduced  from  Africa  for  the  nourishment 
of  the  negro  slaves,  and  the  Spanish  lady  Maria 
d'  Escobo,  wife  of  Diego  de  Chaves,  carried  some 
grains  of  wheat  to  Lima,  and  distributed  a  portion, 
after  three  years  harvesting,  to  the  colonists  ? 
In  1513  Oviedo  mentions  the  banana  as  of  very 
ancient  culture  among  the  Indians ;  but  one  of  the 
most  curious  facts  of  the  time  is  that  Columbus, 
Vespucci,  Pinzon,  Alonzo  Negro,  and  Cortez  do  not 
speak  of  this  valuable  fruit,  yet  describe  maize,  the 


240 


agave,  papaw,  jatropha,  and  manioc.  Garcilasso  de 
la  Vega  stated  that  the  food  of  the  Incas  consisted 
of  potatoes,  maize,  and  the  banana.  Perhaps  the 
wonderful  product  of  nature  flourished  in  the  virgin 
soil  as  the  wild  cherry  in  the  forests  of  France  and 
Germany,  and  the  oak  and  linden  tree,  from  remote 
antiquity,  or  was  a  great  plant  traveller  in  those 
remote  days  when  the  giant  trees  of  Mariposa 
throve  as  the  European  Sequoia,  and  the  camel  of 
Bactria  and  Arabia  originated  in  America.  Eather 
would  we  believe  that  the  west  wind  wafted  a 
winged  seed  from  the  garden  of  Eden,  like  the  ash 
and  sycamore  trees,  or  the  thistle  and  dandelion 
families,  sown  by  the  rain  drops  in  forest  recesses 
of  the  Amazon  tributaries,  with  the  myrtles,  cassia, 
mimosa,  and  bigonias,  with  golden  flowers,  as  foster- 
mothers  and  sisters  of  the  young  shoot,  until  the 
first  Indian  stretched  forth  his  hand,  and,  gathering 
the  delicious  ripened  fruit,  found  it  was  good. 

Vespucci  lifted  his  gaze  in  sleepless  wonder  to 
an  unknown  firmament,  losing  sight  of  familiar  con 
stellations  sinking  below  the  horizon,  searching  new 
zones  of  nebulous  masses,  the  glittering  star-dust  of 
the  Milky  Way,  sweeping  between  Scorpion,  Centaur, 
and  the  Cross,  realising,  however  dimly,  the  tracks 
of  intense,  contrasting  blackness  and  the  phospho 
rescent  Magellanic  clouds  circling  around  the  desert, 
starless  pole  of  the  south.  The  memory  of  Ves 
pucci  acquires  a  dignity  of  which  all  the  petty 
detractions  of  posterity  cannot  rob  him,  in  his 


THE   FOURTH   VOYAGE.  241 

researches  of  the  ancient  science  of  astronomy  in 
novel  aspects  during  his  voyages.  He  stands  on 
board  of  his  vessel,  unaided  by  the  modern  telescope, 
himself  only  Pascal's  feeble  reed  trembling  in  the 
midst  of  creation,  but  endowed  with  the  power  of 
thought,  comprehending  the  vastness  and  durability 
of  the  stellar  systems,  and  tracing  out  the  relations 
of  these  bright  luminaries  of  the  heavens. 

Did  Vespucci  meditate  on  the  utility  of  the  log 
in  that  transit  of  four  thousand  miles  across  the 
ocean  from  South  Georgia  Island  to  Sierra  Leone  ? 
The  log-line  (la  cantena  a  poppa)  is  attributed  to 
the  voyages  of  Magellan,  as  noting  the  speed  of  a 
ship  by  means  of  the  eye,  while  Xavarette  places  it 
on  English  vessels  in  1577.  The  perfected  equip 
ment  is  supposed  to  have  been  devised  in  the  six 
teenth  century.  On  the  other  hand,  Vespucci  may 
have  pondered  on  the  contrivance  used  by  measurers 
of  ships  employed  by  the  Eoman  republic;  which 
consisted  of  wheels  four  feet  high,  with  paddles,  out 
side  of  galleys ;  and  Vetruvius  explains  a  method  of 
dropping  stones  through  a  toothed  wheel  as  indicat 
ing  progress. 

These  four  threads,  the  known  voyages  of  Ves 
pucci,  stretched  from  Spain  and  Portugal  to  America. 
He  is  supposed  to  have  made  a  fifth,  and  even  a 
sixth,  transit,  exploring  the  vicinity  of  Darien.  Lost 
in  the  mists  of  obscurity  the  ship  of  Vespucci  hovers 
like  a  phantom  craft  near  that  narrow  road  of  isth 
mus  as  yet  untrodden  by  the  trains  of  mules  bring- 

16 


242  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

ing  loads  of  copper  from  Chili,  ginger  of  Peru,  and 
cacao  of  Guayaquil,  for  transport  by  sea,  Cape  Horn 
not  having  been  doubled.  Later,  when  forests  were 
cut  down,  English  whalers  and  corsairs  frequented 
these  waters,  and  tempting  visions  of  establishing  a 
trade  with  China  began  to  haunt  the  mind  of  men, 
the  monk  Cure*,  of  the  village  of  Novita.  schemed 
in  1789  to  make  a  tiny  canal  whereby  the  canoes 
loaded  with  his  harvest  of  cacao,  the  money  cur 
rency  of  Aztec  kings,  the  beverage  of  a  Montezuma, 
known  as  chocolate,  when  ground  and  mingled  with 
maize  and  vanilla,  should  traverse  the  ravine  of  the 
Kaspadura  to  unite  with  the  Eio  San  Juan,  in  the 
interior  of  the  province  of  Choco. 

Did  Vespucci  make  these  last,  even  problematical 
voyages,  in  the  interests  of  Spain,  or  of  Portugal  ? 

The  phantoms  of  the  two  Indians  whose  corpses 
were  cast  up  on  the  shore  of  the  Azores  hover  in 
the  sea  mists  of  that  remote  time.  The  leader  — 
for  every  man  is  a  leader  in  his  sphere,  or  is  led  by 
the  majority  —  niay  have  been  the  first  American 
setting  forth  to  discover  Europe.  The  dreams  and 
projects  of  that  Indian  Columbus,  or  Vespucci,  will 
never  be  known  to  us ;  only  his  tragic  fate  of  being 
washed  up  on  the  strand  is  clear.  That  he  had 
ventured  far  in  some  frail  craft,  inspired  by  the  bold 
ambition  and  ardent  curiosity  of  the  men  of  the 
century  of  other  continents,  is  evident  from  the  fact 
of  his  body's  gaining  a  safe  haven,  unharmed  by 
the  buffeting  of  the  waves,  or  the  hunger  of  marine 


THE  FOURTH   VOYAGE.  243 

monsters.  We  may  readily  imagine  him  to  have 
been  a  young  man,  courageous  and  alert  above  his 
fellows,  smooth-limbed,  well-proportioned,  with  a 
bronze-tinted  skin,  a  beardless  cheek,  and  long  eyes, 
imbuing  his  companion  with  his  own  ardent  schemes 
of  seeking  a  land  beyond  the  seas,  where  all  the  con 
ditions  of  existence  were  delightful,  the  feathers 
and  bone  ornaments  more  plentiful,  and  seasons  of 
famine  never  drove  the  inhabitants  to  subsist  on  the 
pith  of  trees,  or  to  make  and  swallow  clay-balls  to 
appease  hunger ;  where,  in  fact,  the  harvest  of  gather 
ing  the  brazil-nuts  was  prolonged,  with  attendant 
feasting  on  roasted  monkey  and  palm-wine.  The 
brother,  or  friend,  doubtless  listened,  and  agreed  to 
accompany  him,  marvelling  where  the  young  poet 
and  hero  had  got  his  ideas  of  the  world. 

Dim  traditions  of  ancient  America  surely  de 
scended  to  this  son  in  some  vague  image  of  the 
white  race  as  sons  of  the  heaven,  inspired  by  reli 
gious  symbolism.  The  waves  of  successive  migra 
tions  came  down  to  him,  from  the  prehistoric  inhabi 
tant  of  the  inter-glacial  period,  the  cave-dweller, 
who  was  ever  an  artist  in  his  way,  served  by  the 
reindeer  and  Arctic  fox,  —  those  early  settlers  who 
crossed  the  Behring  Straits  on  shallow  ridges  from 
Siberia,  —  to  the  highly  civilised  Aztecs,  Mayas,  and 
Peruvians,  and  the  restless  Carib  populations. 

The  Indian  has  been  pronounced  culpably  indif 
ferent  to  all  feminine  charms  by  Europe,  but  the 
native  woman  may  have  fired  his  imagination,  as 


244  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

the  discoverer  swung  in  his  cotton  hammock  and 
smoked  his  cigar,  by  her  graceful  and  mystical  tra 
ditional  lore.  If  the  maidens  did  not  soothe  his 
reveries  by  songs  learned  from  their  grandmothers 
about  the  land  to  the  east,  as  they  strung  necklaces 
of  the  plumage  of  the  humming-bird,  such  as  the 
beautiful  Anacoana,  the  cacique's  widow,  composed^ 
the  wise  crones,  nurses,  and  sorceresses,  must  have 
bewitched  him  by  their  flatteries  of  future  greatness 
as  they  brewed  subtle  poisons  from  the  juice  of  the 
plants  in  the  gloaming. 

Courage  was  not  lacking  to  undertake  a  long 
voyage,  if  necessary.  The  raft,  called  a  jaugadas, 
which  consists  of  seven  pieces  of  light  wood,  eight 
metres  in  length,  with  a  seat  for  the  helmsman, 
lateen  sails,  and  fishing-nets  of  cocoanut  fibre,  ven 
tures  far  on  the  waves.  The  pirogue  of  coast  and 
river,  drawn  up  in  the  rancho  for  safety,  belongs  to 
every  household  in  Brazil.  Instead  of  Vespucci's 
caravel  the  Indian  explorer  probably  set  forth  in 
one  of  those  large  canoes  of  Yucatan,  covered  with 
a  thatch  of  palm-leaves,  with  a  store  of  plantains 
and  bananas  for  provisions,  and  a  few  cocoa  grains, 
as  ready  money.  Had  he  a  primitive  astrolabe,  an 
hour-glass,  or  any  sort  of  almanac  ?  No  doubt  he 
esteemed  the  world  as  small,  like  Columbus,  and 
reasoned  that  a  chain  of  islands  might  extend  from 
San  Fernando  Noronha,  and  the  rocks  of  St.  Paul 
to  a  vast  continent.  Had  he  succeeded  in  his  enter 
prise  and  first-established  relations  from  west  to 


Fresco  by  Fra  Angelica,  in  the  Uffi{i  Gallery. 


THE  FOURTH  VOYAGE.  245 

east,  disclosing  himself  to  the  old  world  as  one  of 
"  the  children  of  the  leaves,"  he  would  have  a  place 
in  history.  He  failed,  sport  of  the  storms  of  mid- 
ocean,  was  cast  on  the  strand  like  an  empty  shell, 
and  is  forgotten. 

Did  he  sight  the  Azores,  —  that  group,  crowned 
by  the  Peak  of  Pico,  with  Corvo  and  Flores  lying 
to  the  north,  Fayal,  St.  George,  and  Graciosa  beyond, 
and  St.  Michael  to  the  south,  composed  of  volcanic 
cliffs,  and  valleys  worn  by  torrents,  where  the  kite 
that  gave  its  Portuguese  name  Acor  still  soars  high, 
and  the  Myrica  fay  a  clothes  the  soil  ?  Was  his  boat 
capsized  by  the  southeast  trades  of  summer,  or  the 
heavy  winter  gales  from  the  south-west  ?  The  In 
dian  was  a  message  from  America,  mute  amidst  the 
wrack  of  the  tide  that  brought  pine-trees,  gigantic 
rushes,  and  bits  of  carved  wood.  Let  us  hope  the 
people  of  the  Isle  of  Flores  gave  him  Christian 
burial.  His  phantom  shape  haunts  the  mists  of 
that  period  of  early  voyages. 


CHAPTEE  XIII. 

A   FOREIGNER. 

IN  the  year  1507  a  group  of  men  famous  in 
history  were  gathered  in  the  city  of  Burgos.  These 
were  King  Ferdinand,  the  Catholic,  and  Amerigo 
Vespucci,  Solis,  and  Pinzon,  invited  to  court  to  form 
a  board  of  navigation,  construct  charts,  and  trace 
new  routes  for  projected  voyages. 

King  Ferdinand,  from  a  worldly  standpoint,  had 
developed  rare  qualities  of  astuteness,  his  very  cold 
ness,  craftiness,  and  unscrupulousness  in  ambition 
serving  the  end  of  extending  and  strengthening  the 
Spanish  rule  for  his  immediate  descendants.  Queen 
Isabella  died  in  1504,  and  he  had  been  appointed 
regent  of  Castile,  owing  to  the  alleged  incapacity  of 
his  daughter  Joanna,  as  heiress  of  the  throne.  In 
1500  he  had  made  the  treaty  with  Louis  XII.  of 
France  by  means  of  which  the  two  sovereigns 
divided  the  kingdom  of  Naples.  The  great  Captain 
Gonsalvo  had  previously  sailed  to  Italy  with  a  pow 
erful  army,  and,  disputes  speedily  arising  between 
the  invaders,  a  war  of  four  years'  duration  termi 
nated  in  the  overthrow  of  the  French,  and  the  firm 
establishment  of  Spanish  authority  in  the  kingdom 


A  FOREIGNER.  247 

of  Naples.  The  Treaty  of  Cambray  was  not  signed 
until  1508.  Physical  infirmities  and  bereavements 
smote  the  monarch  heavily.  His  son,  Prince  Juan, 
married  to  Margaret,  daughter  of  the  Emperor  Max 
imilian,  had  died  in  1497,  the  Princess  of  Portugal, 
two  years  later,  and  the  loss  of  Queen  Isabella  fol 
lowed  in  due  course  of  time.  Gout,  the  terrible 
inheritance  of  his  grandson,  Charles  V.,  rendered 
Ferdinand  morbid  and  gloomy.  He  espoused  Ger- 
maine  de  Foix,  granddaughter  of  Queen  Leonora  of 
Navarre,  and  death  speedily  robbed  him  of  an  infant 
son.  We  behold  King  Ferdinand  as  a  morose  per 
sonality,  discovering  the  vanity  of  human  pride  in 
all  things,  holding  his  court  in  the  wind-swept, 
ancient  town  of  Burgos,  where  memories  of  the  Cid 
were  still  fresh,  and  the  spires  of  the  Cathedral  then 
pointed  to  the  stars.  His  humour  was  scarcely  enliv 
ened  by  the  volatile  French  bride,  who  flashes  across 
our  range  of  vision  for  a  moment,  as  she  landed  at 
Savona  in  June  weather  from  the  Aragonese  fleet, 
when  the  state  galleys  had  carpets  spread,  and  red 
and  yellow  awnings,  and  Louis  XII.,  rendered  amia 
ble  by  the  payment  of  one  million  gold  ducats  in 
consideration  of  Germaine's  receiving  undisputed 
dowry  of  Naples,  took  the  gay  dame  on  a  pillion 
behind  him,  —  great  feasting  on  game  and  the  wines 
of  Corsica,  Languedoc,  and  Provence  resulting. 

Amerigo  Vespucci  had  returned  from  his  Portu 
guese  service  to  Andalusia,  and  is  believed  to  have 
married  the  Spanish  lady,  Maria  Cerezo,  about  this 


248  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

date.  He  was  fifty-three  years  of  age,  and  poor. 
Varnhagen's  summary  is  just:  "The  man  who 
had  claimed  the  notice  of  two  kings,  who  had  been 
at  the  head  of  a  large  house  of  commerce,  and  asso 
ciated  in  the  maritime  enterprises  of  two  superiors, 
furnishing  a  fleet  with  its  armament,  was  only  hon 
ored  by  his  own  indigence,  as  were  most  of  the 
early  navigators."  The  court  was  at  Toros  in  1505, 
where  the  Cortes  of  Castile  had  been  convoked. 
Vespucci  seems  to  have  had  a  share  in  a  plan  of 
sending  three  ships  to  the  land  of  spices  in  Asia, 
which  was  not  carried  into  execution.  A  second 
project  of  building  or  refitting  vessels  in  the  Bay 
of  Biscay  was  also  without  result.  He  may  have 
accompanied  Juan  de  la  Cosa  to  the  Gulf  of  Darien, 
which  would  explain  his  fifth  voyage  as  under 
Spanish  colors.  The  most  active  spirit  of  enterprise 
had  awakened  in  Seville  during  the  years  since  the 
clock  of  the  Giralda  had  marked  the  hour  when 
Vespucci's  ambition  to  visit  unknown  lands  was 
first  aroused.  In  1503  colonial  affairs  were  regu 
lated  here  with  a  board  of  functionaries  established, 
bearing  the  titles  of  factor,  treasurer,  and  comp 
troller.  A  permanent  residence  was  opened  in  the 
old  Alcazar,  where  the  members  met  daily  to 
transact  business.  The  council  was  expected  to 
be  acquainted  with  all  matters  of  moment  to  the 
welfare  of  the  colonies,  and  afford  the  government 
information  respecting  commercial  prospects.  Power 
to  grant  licenses  under  regular  conditions,  provide 


A   FOREIGNER.  249 

the  equipment  of  fleets,  determine  the  destination 
of  ships,  and  furnish  a  code  of  instructions  on  sailing 
was  accorded.  All  merchandise  ready  for  exporta 
tion  was  deposited  in  the  Alcazar,  where  return  car 
goes  were  received,  and  contracts  made  on  sales. 
Similar  authority  was  conceded  over  the  Barbary 
coast,  and  the  Canary  Isles,  and  a  supervision  over 
all  vessels  of  Cadiz  as  well  as  of  Seville,  with  other 
judicial  powers  arising  out  of  prolonged  voyages, 
and  colonial  trade  in  general.  In  furtherance  of 
the  latter  aim  two  jurists  were  paid  a  government 
salary.  Such  were  the  rights  of  the  famous  House 
of  Trade,  Casa  de  Contratacion,  circumscribed  a 
trifle  by  the  superior  jurisdiction  of  the  Council  of 
the  Indies.  Seville  became  the  mart  of  European 
traffic,  as  a  port,  and  was  the  chief  resort  of  the 
merchants  of  Flanders  after  the  marriage  of  Joanna 
with  the  Duke  of  Burgundy.  The  tide  of  wealth 
flowed  from  Spanish  America  until  the  entry  of 
1802  reached  81,838,847  piastres  of  precious  metals. 
Vespucci  was  one  of  the  tools  utilised  by  this  vast 
and  powerful  system  of  commerce.  Peter  Martyr 
might  well  exclaim:  "Amidst  the  storms  and 
troubles  of  Italy,  Spain  every  day  stretched  her 
wings  over  a  wider  sweep  of  empire,  and  extended 
the  glory  of  her  name  to  the  far  Antipodes."  Also, 
the  worthy  man  wrote :  "  I  would  wish  never  to 
quit  Spain  since  I  am  here  at  the  fountain  head  of 
tidings  of  the  newly  discovered  lands,  and  where 
I  may  hope,  as  the  historian  of  such  great  events, 


250  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

to  acquire  for  my  name  some  renown  with  pos 
terity." 

The  court  removed  to  Burgos.  Vespucci  followed, 
bearing  a  letter  of  introduction  from  Columbus  to 
his  son  Diego.  This  letter  sheds  a  clear  light  on 
the  character  of  Vespucci  as  held  in  esteem  by  his 
contemporaries.  The  silence,  and  even  the  gaps 
and  discrepancies,  in  current  history  concerning  a 
man  prove  little  to  his  condemnation,  but  the  sympa 
thy  for  his  fellow-countryman  expressed  by  Colum 
bus,  and  the  lack  of  all  resentment  to  Vespucci, 
subsequently  manifested  by  Ferdinand  Columbus, 
so  jealous  of  the  fame  of  his  illustrious  father  after 
death,  plainly  reveal  that  neither  the  Genoese  nor 
the  Florentine  meditated  the  usurpation  of  christen 
ing  America  on  the  part  of  the  latter,  as  eventually 
transpired. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Columbus  had  fallen 
on  evil  times  of  disaster,  failure,  and  sorrow,  being 
required  "  to  make  head  against  a  sea  of  trouble." 
He  remained  ill  and  infirm  at  Seville,  and  had  sent 
his  son  Diego  to  court,  awaiting  couriers  hour  by 
hour,  to  bring  news.  He  wrote  :  — 

"Diego  Mendez  departed  hence  on  Monday,  the  third  of 
this  month.  After  his  departure  I  conversed  with  Amerigo 
Vespucci,  the  bearer  of  this,  who  goes  there  (to  court), 
summoned  on  affairs  of  navigation.  Fortune  has  been 
adverse  to  him,  as  to  many  others.  His  labours  have  not 
profited  him  so  much  as  they  reasonably  should  have 
done.  He  goes  on  my  account,  and  with  much  desire  to 


A  FOREIGNER.  251 

do  something  that  may  result  to  my  advantage,  if  within 
his  power.  I  cannot  ascertain  here  in  what  I  can  employ 
him  that  will  be  serviceable  to  me,  for  I  do  not  know  what 
raay  be  there  required.  He  goes  with  the  determination 
to  do  all  that  is  possible  for  me.  See  in  what  he  may  be 
of  advantage,  and  co-operate  with  him  ;  that  he  may  say 
and  do  everything  to  put  his  plan  in  operation ;  and  let 
all  be  done  secretly,  that  he  may  not  be  suspected.  I 
have  said  everything  to  him  touching  the  business ;  and 
I  have  informed  him  of  the  pay  I  receive." 

Vespucci,  at  the  court  of  King  Ferdinand  in  the 
closing  years  of  his  life,  presents  the  most  interest 
ing  phase  of  his  career.  If  he  had  been  insufficiently 
recompensed  for  his  services,  his  merits  were  evi 
dently  appreciated  in  Spain.  He  was  appointed 
pilot-major  of  the  kingdom  by  a  royal  decree  on 
March  22,  1508.  In  addition  to  holding  this  office 
he  was  assigned  an  annual  pension  at  the  same  date. 
Cosa  was  nominated  mayor  of  Urabk  and  the  gold 
mines  of  that  district  at  the  time.  The  royal  letter 
addressed  to  Vespucci  (called  Despuchi),  was  written 
at  Valladolid  on  August  6.  The  important  missive 
was  ordered  to  be  publicly  read  in  all  towns,  vil 
lages,  and  hamlets  of  Spain,  as  charging  Vespucci 
to  examine  pilots  on  the  uses  of  the  astrolabe,  and 
the  quarter-of-a-circle,  to  ascertain  if  they  thoroughly 
united  theory  with  practice,  and  to  make  out  their 
certificates.  He  was  further  enjoined  to  perfect  a 
chart  on  the  model  of  that  known  as  the  Koyal 
Patent,  subject  to  successive  corrections  and  improve- 


252  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

ments  from  information  which  all  pilots  returning 
from  the  Indies  were  expected  to  furnish  the  Casa 
de  Contratacion  at  Seville. 

Vespucci  was  beginning  to  acquire  a  European 
reputation  from  the  work  of  Hylacomylus,  issued 
in  1507,  and  of  which  some  copies  must  have  reached 
Spain.  He  held  the  post  of  pilot-major  for  five  years, 
and  the  distinction  alone  refutes  calumny.  The 
accusation  that  King  Ferdinand  did  not  encourage 
colonial  enterprise  as  Queen  Isabella  had  done, 
seems  unjust  if  he  maintained  a  board  of  pilots  at 
Burgos,  and  the  House  of  Trade  at  Seville. 

Amerigo  Vespucci  studied  the  maps  of  the  globe 
as  then  known,  and  meditated  on  his  own  travels  as 
confirming,  or  dispelling  established  theories.  Chart 
making  was  estimated  as  an  honourable  calling, 
whether  pursued  by  Christopher  and  Bartholomew 
Columbus,  or  Vespucci.  The  latter  had  ever  been 
an  eager  student  and  collector  of  maps  and  globes. 
He  is  known  to  have  paid  one  hundred  and  thirty 
ducats  for  a  map  of  sea  and  land,  made  at  Majorca 
in  1439  by  Gabriel  de  Valsequa.  He  forged  a  link 
of  the  chain  of  geographical  knowledge  extending 
from  remote  antiquity  when  Egypt  drew  landscapes 
on  rolls  of  papyrus,  the  Hindoos  designated  Thibet, 
Bokhara,  and  Persia  as  the  sole  countries  of  the 
earth,  the  Greeks  made  of  cosmography  a  picture, 
the  Eomans  a  tablet,  and  thence,  aided  by  printing 
and  engraving  on  wood  and  copper,  to  the  slow  evo 
lution  of  the  modern  map  as  projected  by  the  latest 


A   FOREIGNER.  253 

International  Congress,  with  three  or  four  thousand 
sheets,  on  the  scale  of  sixteen  miles  to  an  inch,  and 
at  a  cost  of  £100,000. 

The  rnappa-mundi  spread  out  before  the  eyes  of 
Vespucci,  embracing  the  theory  of  a  world  disk,  sur 
rounded  by  ocean,  of  Anaximander  of  Thales,  560 
B.  c.,  the  first  sphere  invented  four  centuries  later 
with  a  division  of  land  and  water,  accepted  down  to 
the  Middle  Ages,  the  labours  of  the  Arab  geogra 
phers,  Ebn  Hankal  in  the  tenth  century,  Edrisi  in 
the  twelfth,  and  all  those  quaint  designs  of  a  tiny 
world,  with  monsters  and  terrible  shapes  on  the 
limits  of  Ultima  Thule,  still  held  ground.  None 
would  gainsay  of  King  Ferdinand's  pilots  the  fiat  of 
Solon,  read  by  the  elder  Pinzon  among  the  manu 
scripts  of  the  Vatican  when  he  visited  Eome  under 
Innocent  VIII. :  — 

"  Navigate  the  Mediterranean  Sea  to  the  end  of  Spain  in 
the  direction  north  and  south  until  95  degrees  of  distance 
are  reached  when  the  land  of  Cipango  will  he  found,  fertile 
and  abundant,  in  greatness  equal  to  Africa  and  Europe." 

In  the  past,  Strabo,  Hipparchus,  Polybius,  Pompo- 
nius  Mela,  or  Ptolemy,  sending  forth  geography  as 
a  winged  shape,  with  a  torch  in  her  hand,  formed 
the  first  segments  of  the  chain,  with  Martin  Behain 
and  Cosa  near  Vespucci.  The  forging  of  the  links 
went  on  beyond  his  day,  presiding  at  the  council  of 
the  court  of  Burgos.  The  celebrated  young  men 
Walter  Lud,  Matthias  Ringmann,  and  Waldseemuller, 


254  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

dwelling  at  the  town  of  St.  Die*  in  the  Vosges,  took 
up  their  share  of  the  work  with  unforeseen  results. 
They  studied  to  amend  the  work  of  Ptolemy  under 
the  patronage  of  Ke*ne*  II.  of  Lorraine,  at  the  same 
time  that  others  at  Vienna  sought  to  improve  the 
map  of  Mela,  after  reading  the  pamphlet  of  Ves 
pucci's  second  letter  to  Soderini,  printed  by  the  pub 
lisher  Pacini  of  Florence,  1506,  speedily  translated 
into  French,  and  propounded  the  idea :  — 

"But  now  these  parts  have  been  more  extensively 
explored,  and  another  fourth  part  has  been  discovered 
by  Amerieus  Vespucius  (as  will  appear  in  what  follows)  : 
wherefore  I  do  not  see  what  is  rightly  to  hinder  us  from 
calling  it  Amerige  or  America,  that  is,  the  land  of  Ameri 
eus,  after  its  discoverer  Amerieus,  —  a  man  of  sagacious 
mind,  —  since  both  Europe  and  Asia  have  got  their  names 
from  women." 

The  name  of  the  godfather  was  by  no  means  thus 
hastily  bestowed  on  a  new  world  by  Waldseemuller. 
A  crowd  of  workers  of  the  future  pressed  near 
Vespucci  at  Burgos,  each  lifting  the  veil  of  ob 
scurity  a  little,  —  giving  South  America  to  the  Flor 
entine  ;  according  the  lands  of  the  King  of  Spain  to 
Columbus ;  finding  a  quarta  pars  of  the  globe  con 
venient  ;  Schoner  pondering  over  Terra  Novis  ;  or  the 
papal  meridian  dividing  Brazil;  until  in  1541  the 
western  hemisphere,  by  a  sequence  of  events,  became 
America. 

We  find  the  place  in  history  filled  by  Vespucci 
in  sharp  relief  of  contrast  to  his  contemporaries,  if 


Statue  of  Christopher  Columbus. 


LRISTOFORO   COLOMB 


A  FOREIGNER.  255 

detached  from  those  immediate  surroundings  which 
are  supposed  to  render  a  man  the  creature  of  circum 
stance.  Columbus  struggled  with  the  daily  tide  of 
material  events,  —  sought  to  plant  colonies  on  the 
shores  of  an  unexplored  continent  without  realising 
its  extent,  defended  his  family  rights  to  enjoy  titles, 
and  exacted  emoluments.  Vespucci  studied  the 
stars  and  maps,  holding  aloof  from  the  jealous  con 
tention  of  colonists.  He  was  not  lacking  in  courage, 
as  is  evinced  by  his  voyages,  and  dwelling  and 
sleeping  on  shore  with  the  Indians  of  Brazil  in 
order  to  study  their  habits ;  yet  he  was  not  the  first 
comer,  slain  and  eaten  by  the  savages  at  Cape  St. 
Koque ;  nor  did  he  perish  of  poisoned  arrows  in  the 
forest,  like  the  rash  Ojeda  and  the  veteran  Cosa.  If 
he  did  not  enrich  himself  by  exclusive  trading  for 
pearls  and  gold  on  the  cost  of  Paria,  neither  was 
he  disgraced  by  imprisonment  on  his  return,  on  the 
suspicion  of  concealing  some  gems,  as  fell  to  the  lot 
of  other  navigators.  He  was  not  an  idle  dreamer, 
roaming  about  the  world,  like  the  Venetian  astrol 
oger  Micer  Codro,  drawing  evil  auguries  from  the 
planets,  and  seeking  the  shapes  of  sorcery  in  Mela's 
antipodal  realm,  and  dying  on  the  shores  of  the  new 
continent.  He  must  have  been  prudent,  sagacious, 
and  temperate  in  his  dealings  with  his  fellow-men, 
and  displayed  the  tact  of  good  breeding.  Amidst 
all  the  cloudy,  unsatisfactory  explanations  of  certain 
portions  of  his  career,  —  such  as  his  latest  expedi 
tions  to  Brazil  and  Darien,  —  modern  historians  are 


256  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

not  lacking  to  suggest  that  because  Columbus  died 
in  the  conviction  of  having  reached  the  Indies,  it 
does  not  follow  that  Vespucci,  who  survived  to  1512 
held  the  same  faith  respecting  the  lands  belonging 
to  Asia,  when  in  1507  it  was  known  otherwise 
to  Hylacomilus,  who  called  it  a  new  world,  and  a 
fourth  part  of  the  earth.  Varnhagen  states :  — 

"Without  detraction  from  the  glory  of  Columbus,  it 
•would  not  be  unfitting  to  justify  still  further  the  name  of 
America,  owing  to  these  facts,  if  it  could  be  proved  that 
Vespucci  was  the  first  to  recognise  and  sustain  that  the 
country  discovered  did  not  belong  to  ancient  Asia." 

In  one  of  his  letters  he  alludes  to  the  compilation 
of  a  work,  which  he  intends  to  write,  or  has  written, 
as  a  sort  of  diary  or  commonplace  book,  uno  zibal- 
done,  that  "  I  entitle  the  '  Four  Voyages,'  in  which  I 
have  related  most  of  the  things  I  have  seen,  .  .  . 
and  I  have  reduced  this  into  the  form  of  a  volume 
of  geography."  He  also  speaks  of  eventually  retir 
ing  to  Florence,  and  dedicating  his  declining  years 
to  writing  out  his  experiences.  Had  he  done  so  he 
would  have  assuredly  received  a  hearing  from  an 
enlightened  world.  Where  is  the  manuscript  of 
Amerigo  Vespucci  ?  Probably  irretrievably  lost.  It 
may  belong  to  the  category  of  projected  tasks  and 
half-matured  schemes,  of  which  men  dream  in  this 
life,  and  which  they  never  execute.  A  recording 
angel  may  note  on  his  tablets  such  aspirations  to  fill 
the  blessed  repose  of  leisure,  and  a  clearer  insight  of 


-A  FOREIGNER.  257 

thought  in  the  spheres  of  eternity.  The  idea  is 
attractive  that  some  seeker  will  yet  come  upon  the 
diary  of  Vespucci  in  the  archives  of  the  Castle  of 
Simancas  or  Seville, — jealously  withheld  by  the  King 
of  Portugal,  and  still  hidden  in  the  Torre  do  Tombo 
at  Lisbon,  undestroyed  by  earthquake,  or  slumber 
ing  forgotten  on  the  shelves  of  a  Florence  library. 
Hope  points  to  the  Pandects  of  Justinian,  unearthed 
at  Amalfi ;  to  the  treatise  on  the  Government  of 
Athens  of  Aristotle,  discovered  after  two  thousand 
years ;  to  the  documents  and  maps  of  Carlo  Zeno, 
found  by  his  descendant  Niccolo  a  century  after 
his  death.  The  Complutensian  Polyglot  Bible  — 
Cardinal  Ximenes'  work,  aided  by  nine  scholars 
skilled  in  ancient  tongues,  enriched  by  the  treasures 
of  the  Vatican  loaned  by  Leo  X.,  and  completed 
when  printing  was  in  its  infancy  —  left  Molden- 
hauer  to  seek  the  original  manuscript  in  1784,  and 
find  that  the  librarian  had  just  sold  the  precious 
sheets  to  a  rocket-maker.  How  charming  is  the 
possibility  that  a  woman  may  grasp  the  leaves  of 
Vespucci's  journal,  if  only  in  acknowledgment  of  the 
feminine  christening  of  Asia,  Europe,  and  America, 
—  even  as  the  Duchess  d' Abrantes  noticed  the  vol 
ume  bound  in  green  parchment,  attached  by  a  red 
ribbon,  bought  by  her  maid  in  Italy  for  curl-papers, 
which  proved  to  be  the  "Herbier "  of  Jean  Jacques 
Eousseau,  begun  in  the  valley  of  Montmorency, 
with  blank  pages  similar  to  those  of  Linnaeus  for 
reflections. 

17 


258  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

"  In  a  certain  senso  all  men  are  historians,  if  only  in 
the  love  of  narrative,  prophecy,  and  even  the  pouring 
forth  of  personal  impressions  and  aspirations." 

Amerigo  Vespucci  died  at  Seville  on  the  22d  of 
February,  1512,  at  the  age  of  sixty-one  years.  His 
widow  had  a  slender  pension  of  ten  thousand 
maravedis,  which  was  paid  by  Solis,  as  the  successor 
of  Vespucci  in  office,  from  1512  to  1516,  and  by 
Sebastian  Cabot  from  1518  to  November  16,  1523. 
Dona  Maria  Cerezo  died  in  1524.  Vespucci  made 
a  will  at  Seville,  with  Manuel  Catano,  canon,  as 
testamentary  executor.  No  trace  of  this  document 
can  be  found  in  the  archives.  His  nephew,  Gio 
vanni  Vespucci,  pilot,  son  of  his  eldest  brother, 
Antonio  Vespucci,  inherited  his  charts  and  papers. 
Vespucci  was  the  foreigner,  treated  fairly,  on  the 
whole,  but  reaping  the  full  tide  of  unchecked  enmity 
after  death,  chiefly  from  succeeding  generations. 
The  echo  of  the  lament  of  Abd-er-Eahman,  in  his 
poem  to  the  palm-tree,  might  have  sighed  through 
the  marble  courts  of  the  Alcazar  at  Seville,  and 
swept  over  the  tomb  of  the  Florentine,  as  well : 
"Like  me,  thou  art  separated  from  relations  and 
friends  ;  thou  didst  grow  in  a  different  soil,  and  now 
thou  art  far  from  the  land  of  thy  birth." 


CHAPTEE  XIV. 

FOES  AND   FRIENDS. 

AMERIGO  VESPUCCI  had  so  many  more  foes  than 
friends  that  the  former  naturally  take  precedence  in 
any  further  consideration  of  his  character. 

First  ranks  Las  Casas,  Bishop  of  Chiapa.  This 
zealous  missionary,  born  at  Seville  in  1474,  presents 
to  our  contemplation,  in  his  career,  the  strange 
phase  of  the  complex  and  pliable  human  conscience 
of  striving  to  befriend  the  Indian,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  countenancing  the  introduction  of  African 
slaves  into  the  colonies.  His  great  work,  Cronica 
de  las  Indias  Occidentales  contained  too  much  infor 
mation  offensive  to  the  Spanish  government  for  pub 
lication.  As  all  the  world  of  that  date  was  made 
aware,  in  pious  language,  the  indisputable  rights  of 
Spain  to  America  were  ten,  as  a  concession  clearly 
confirmed  by  God  in  many  miracles,  occupation  by 
reason  of  the  barbarous  customs  of  the  natives,  their 
sins,  the  need  of  preaching  and  propagating  Chris 
tianity,  the  obligation  of  obeying  the  dictation  of 
Faith,  the  duty  of  disarming  all  infidels,  and  the 
donation  of  the  Pope,  whereby  the  sovereign  Pontiff 
divided  unknown  lands  with  many  notable  results 


260  AMERICA'S  GODFATHEK. 

in  the  bull  of  the  new  meridian  lines  accorded  to 
rival  countries.  Tale-bearing  from  those  coral  isl 
ands  of  the  West  about  extortion,  wrong,  and  brutal 
excesses  on  the  part  of  paid  servants  of  the  Crown 
was  to  be  promptly  repressed.  There  was  no  free 
dom  of  the  press  in  the  day  of  Las  Casas.  Sad 
mischief  was  wrought  by  the  good  man  with  the 
fame  of  Vespucci ;  nevertheless  fruit  of  that  ready- 
tongued  murder  of  the  reputation  of  those  almost 
unknown  and  indifferent  to  us  which  we  are  told 
is  so  rife  now  as  to  disfigure  the  brotherly  kind 
ness  of  Christian  communities  in  a  truly  fratricidal 
spirit. 

Las  Casas  was  irritated,  on  his  return  to  Spain  to 
find  the  name  of  America  so  frequently  used  in 
Europe,  —  by  Vadianus  in  his  edition  of  Pomponius 
Mela,  printed  at  Vienna,  1518,  Schoner,  Fries,  Peter 
Bienewitz,  and  Sebastian  Miinster,  written  in  Latin 
and  subsequently  rendered  into  German,  English, 
French,  and  Spanish.  Sir  Thomas  More  in  his 
Utopia  mentions  Vespucci's  voyages  as  in  every 
man's  hand.  Las  Casas  deemed  such  renown  a 
slight  on  the  rights  of  Columbus  which  his  son 
Ferdinand  should  have  resented.  The  manuscript 
of  Las  Casas  remained  neglected  and  unpublished, 
until  such  authorities  as  Eamusio  and  Benzoni,  both 
of  whom  might  have  shed  some  light  of  information 
on  the  matter,  were  dead.  Then  the  Spanish  his 
torian  Herrera,  utilising  the  materials  of  the  work 
of  the  Indias  Occident  ales,  made  the  first  accusation 


FOES  AND   FRIENDS.  261 

against  Amerigo  Vespucci's  integrity  by  affirming 
that  he  had  antedated  his  second  voyage,  under 
taken  with  Ojeda  to  Paria  in  1499,  in  order  to  sup 
plant  Columbus  in  the  discovery  of  Terra  Firma. 

Antonio  Herrera  y  Fordesillas,  born  at  Cuellar  in 
1549,  was  given  the  title  of  first  historian  of  the 
Indies  and  of  Castile  by  Philip  II.  In  1601  he 
published  his  "  History  of  the  Acts  of  the  Castilians 
on  the  islands  and  Terra  Firma  of  the  ocean  from 
1492  to  1554."  Dr.  Eobertson  praises  his  work  for 
accuracy  and  candour,  and  it  has  served  as  a  guide 
for  later  historians  in  treating  of  that  period. 
Assuredly  modern  humanity  may  well  learn  the 
modesty  of  self-distrust  from  such  warning  exam 
ples  !  The  possibility  of  Herrera's  being  in  error, 
careless  in  research,  or  influenced  by  relationship 
with  the  family  of  the  descendants  of  Columbus, 
does  not  seem  to  have  occurred  to  the  Anglo-Saxon 
mind,  at  least,  down  to  our  day,  for  a  moment  of 
doubt.  Did  worthy  Dr.  Eobertson,  commending  the 
Spanish  historian  Herrera,  and  condemning  the 
Florentine  gentleman  Vespucci,  seek  original  arch 
ives  in  Spain  to  verify  dates  and  facts,  as  Mr.  Froude 
and  Mr.  Freeman  would  have  done  ?  Herrera,  with 
access  to  the  national  documents,  and  the  various 
trials  in  the  affairs  of  the  Indies,  as  the  fountain 
source  of  information  sought  by  subsequent  authors 
on  the  subject  of  America,  launched  his  arrow  of 
accusation  at  the  memory  of  Vespucci  as  a  fine 
rascal,  who  usurped  the  glory  of  another  for  the 


262  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

benefit  of  the  Portuguese.  He  affirmed  that  when 
Vespucci  voyaged  with  Ojeda  the  treacherous  Flor 
entine  was  actually  in  the  service  of  Portugal.  Dis 
crediting  dates,  Herrera  found  discrepancies  in  the 
name  of  Lariab  as  meaning  the  coast  of  Paria, —  a 
topic  for  endless  dispute  with  posterity. 

Incredulity  of  all  merits  speedily  ensued.  For  two 
centuries  and  a  half  mankind  accepted  the  state- 
merits  of  Herrera,  and  taught  their  children  that 
Vespucci  had  artfully  cheated  Columbus,  and  got 
his  own  name  imposed  on  the  western  hemisphere 
by  unfair  means. 

Francesco  Lopez  de  Gomara  is  reproached  with 
ignoring  the  very  existence  of  Amerigo  Vespucci, 
passing  over  the  discoveries  of  Columbus  as  a  con 
temporary,  making  mention  of  Ojeda  only  as  a  sol 
dier  who  fought  against  the  Cacique  Caonabo,  while 
striving  to  count  the  hairs  in  the  beard  of  Monte- 
zuma  instead,  and  describing  such  miracles  as  the 
appearance  of  St.  lago,  in  battle,  for  the  Castilians, 
mounted  on  a  fiery  steed.  Other  writers  of  the  period 
were  equally  obscure  and  unsatisfactory.  Nava- 
rete  was  inimical  to  Vespucci  to  the  extent  of 
employing  a  facetious  vein  with  reference  to  the 
description  of  the  iguana  as  a  mere  idle  travellers' 
tale.  He  states :  — 

"  It  is  not  easy  to  imagine  what  kind  of  serpent  it  can 
have  been,  as  big  as  a  kid,  and  with  wings  and  feet,  and 
may  be  only  one  of  Vespucci's  many  absurdities  (uno  de 
los  muchos  absurdos  de  Vespucci  en  sus  relaciones)." 


FOES   AND   FKIENDS.  263 

Thus  readily  did  the  fame  of  Vespucci  become  a 
shuttlecock  of  the  nations,  tossed  about  by  Spanish 
and  Portuguese  national  jealousies  in  the  main,  pos 
sibly,  followed  by  others.  France  polished  the 
weapon  of  fine  wits  on  his  reputation,  in  ready  and 
envious  depreciation,  without  scruple.  Charlevoix 
was  condemnatory,  not  hesitating  to  pronounce  Ves 
pucci  a  usurper,  a  liar,  a  stranger  without  character. 
He  says :  — 

"Amerigo,  on  his  return  to  Europe,  published  a  state 
ment  in  which  he  had  the  audacity  to  advance  that  he, 
first  of  all,  had  discovered  the  continent  of  the  new  world, 
and  his  word  had  so  much  credit,  although  refuted  by  gen. 
eral  knowledge,  that  his  name  was  given  to  that  fourth  part 
of  the  earth  which  alone  equalled,  if  it  did  not  surpass, 
the  three  other  portions  in  size  and  richness." 

Francesco  Bartolozzi  indignantly  inquires  where 
is  the  published  relation  which  proves  the  calumni 
ous  assertion. 

Antoine  de  Latour  also  wrote  :  — 

"  In  1499,  on  a  little  fleet  equipped  by  a  former  com 
panion  of  Christopher  Columbus,  Don  Alfonso  de  Ojeda, 
sailed  in  the  capacity  of  simple  merchant  the  Florentine 
Amerigo  Vespucci,  a  skilful  geographer,  who,  on  the  chart 
of  the  new  world  which  he  prepared,  had  the  address  to 
glide  his  own  name  into  the  place  of  Columbus.  History 
has  corrected  the  error  in  her  annals,  but  the  cruel  wrong 
has  remained  on  the  map." 

Portugal  has  cast  her  stone  at  the  Florentine  in 
the  Viscount  de  Santarem,  who  has  attempted  to 


264  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

demolish  all  claims  of  Vespucci  to  consideration  on 
the  score  of  veracity,  by  admitting  only  the  truth 
of  the  latter's  ever  having  made  his  second  voyage. 

Thence  the  shuttlecock  was  tossed  to  Italy  many 
years  ago.  Genoese  rivalry  met  Florentine  pride  of 
patriotism  in  one  of  those  duels  of  little  States,  with 
partisans  north  and  south  readily  taking  sides,  which 
ever  rent  the  land.  This  was  civil  war  of  the  poet 
and  historian,  the  strife  of  Guelph  and  Ghibelline 
factions  in  the  university,  the  forum,  the  club,  rather 
than  a  struggle  on  a  wider  field. 

The  Marchese  Gino  Capponi  suggests :  — 

"  They  say  the  century  of  Leo  X. ;  why  not  rather  that 
of  Julius  II.  1  America  should  have  been  named  after 
Columbus  instead  of  Vespucci,  to  whom  was  given,  as  to 
Leo,' a  greater  prize  of  fortune  than  ought  to  have  been  ap 
portioned  either.  Both  merited  the  second  honour,  and  ob 
tained  the  first ;  two  Florentines  thus  robbed  two  Genoese.'* 

The  learned  Capponi  further  mentions  in  his 
writings  Cluverius,  Hoffmann,  Vossio,  Spondano, 
Tuano,  Genebrando,  Bafio,  Mellini,  and  Leandro 
Alberti,  especially  in  nautical  and  astronomical 
science,  as  adverse  to  Vespucci.  Napione  must  be 
added  to  the  list. 

The  erudite  Tiraboschi  has  discussed  the  probity 
of  Vespucci  at  great  length.  We  endeavour  to 
gather  a  few  brief  paragraphs  from  his  deductions, 
which  must  have  been  so  fatal  in  the  public  mind  to 
America's  godfather  from  the  very  reputation  for 
justice  of  the  author. 


FOES  AND   FRIENDS.  265 

Girolamo  Tiraboschi  was  born  in  1731,  became 
professor  of  Ehetoric  at  Milan,  and  in  1770  was 
appointed  Librarian  of  the  Duke  of  Modena.  The 
eminent  Jesuit  reasons  thus :  — 

"  Here  are  offered  to  our  examination  two  points  very 
much  involved,  about  which  much  has  been  written  by 
many,  but  nothing  has  yet  been  ascertained  in  a  mode  to 
remove  every  doubt.  I  am  very  far  from  being  an  arbiter 
in  these  contests ;  and  even  if  I  wished  to  be  so,  I  should 
have  no  copy  of  documents  which  would  make  it  of  profit. 
I  shall  only  present  the  reasons  that  each  party  brings 
forward,  and  say  sincerely  which  of  them  appears  to  me  to 
be  the  best  founded,  leaving  each  to  his  own  judgment. 

"  Singularly  enough,  the  points  on  which  the  dispute 
rests  are  two.  The  first  is  :  Was  Amerigo  the  first  to 
discover  terra  firma  in  America,  or  did  Columbus  forestall 
him  1  The  second,  If  he  was  truly  the  chief  and  leader  of 
the  fleet  which  was  sent  to  America,  or  merely  a  simple 
passenger  who  went  on  board  spontaneously.  But  that 
Columbus  had  already  discovered  the  continent,  we  have 
too  many  proofs  to  longer  doubt.  Passing  over  the  testi 
mony  of  Ferdinand,  his  son,  which  might  be  suspected, 
and  all  the  Spanish  writers  who  attribute  such  glory  to 
Columbus,  let  us  bring  forward  two  contemporary  witnesses, 
to  whom  none  can  take  exception.  The  first  one  is  Peter 
Martyr  Anghiera,  who  was  then  in  Spain,  and  wrote  of 
things  as  they  successively  occurred.  He  discusses  the 
landing  of  Columbus  on  the  shores  of  Paria  in  the  month 
of  July,  1498,  and  states  that  he  believed  it  to  be  terra 
Jirmti,  which,  however,  every  one  did  not  so  believe.  The 
other  proof  is  the  relation  of  the  voyages  of  Columbus, 


266  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

printed  at  the  beginning  of  the  following  century,  which 
affirms  that  Columbus  with  his  companions  arrived  at  a 
large  extent  of  land.  It  is  therefore  certain  that  Colum 
bus  had  reached  the  land  called  Paria,  afterward  known 
surely  to  be  the  continent,  which  continent  was  entire 
America,  and  not  an  island.  It  remains  to  be  seen, 
therefore,  which  of  these  two  Italians  arrived  there  first, 
Columbus  or  Vespucci. 

"  Columbus,  by  the  testimony  of  all,  landed  there  in 
July,  1498.  Vespucci,  in  his  relation,  states  that  he  left 
Cadiz,  May  10,  1497,  and  afterward,  relating  his  arrival 
at  the  Canaries,  adds :  '  At  the  end  of  thirty-seven  days, 
we  were  in  possession  of  a  land  which  we  considered  terra 
firma?  (Life  and  Letters  of  Amerigo  Vespucci,  p.  6.) 
If  these  dates  are  true,  it  is  evident  that  Vespucci  reached 
land  a  year  before  Columbus.  But  all  the  Spanish  writers, 
followed  by  many  others,  accuse  Vespucci  of  falsehood, 
and  say  that  he  anticipated  the  period  of  his  journey  in 
order  to  claim  the  glory  of  such  a  discovery,  and  that  he 
did  not  undertake  his  first  voyage  until  May,  1499,  at 
which  time  Vespucci  himself  recounts  that  he  embarked 
for  the  second  time  toward  the  West  Indies.  If  these 
accusations  are  true,  it  must  be  allowed  that  Vespucci  may 
have  entirely  invented  his  first  voyage,  and  there  remains 
for  him  no  subterfuge  whatever,  being  merely  an  impostor, 
which  he  is  called,  indeed,  by  the  above-mentioned  writers. 
I  should  like  to  free  him  from  such  an  odious  accusation, 
but  must  confess  that  in  this  first  voyage  one  meets  with 
no  slight  difficulties.  We  have  before  observed  that 
Columbus,  in  1496,  had  returned  to  Spain,  after  his  second 
voyage,  to  free  himself  before  the  king  and  queen  of  the 
crimes  imputed  to  him  by  his  enemies ;  and  he  fortunately 


FOES  AND  FKIENDS.  267 

succeeded  in  this,  for  with  his  mere  appearance  all  accusa 
tions  vanished,  or  melted  away;  and  received  at  court 
with  great  honours,  he  began  to  prepare  for  a  third  voyage, 
which  he  afterward  undertook  in  May,  1498.  Columbus 
was  therefore  in  Spain  when  Vespucci  recounts  that  he 
had  been  sent  by  King  Ferdinand  to  discover  new  lands 
in  1497;  and  he  was  welcomed  at  court,  and  accorded 
the  privileges  already  conceded  to  viceroys  and  governor- 
generals  of  all  the  countries  found.  Now,  while  Colum 
bus  was  himself  in  that  kingdom,  and  in  such  favourable 
circumstances,  who  can  believe  that  if  another  was  given 
charge  of  continuing  the  discoveries,  that  he  would  have 
tranquilly  suffered  such  an  injury,  or  not  had  power  to 
hinder  it  1  How  did  it  happen  that  no  one,  save  Vespucci 
himself,  left  any  record  of  such  a  fact  ?  It  may  be  said 
that  the  Spanish  writers  were  jealous  of  the  renown  of  a 
stranger,  and  preserved  a  malicious  silence.  But  Colum 
bus  was  equally  a  foreigner  to  them,  as  well  as  Vespucci. 
I  desire  that  such  proofs  might  be  found  as  would  justify 
Vespucci  fully,  and  cancel  every  suspicion  in  regard  to  his 
first  voyage.  .  .  . 

"  Not  less  difficult  to  solve  is  the  other  question,  as  to 
whether  Vespucci  was  chief  of  the  fleet  sent  to  America, 
or  a  simple  passenger.  The  Spanish  writers,  after  having 
proved  that  only  in  1499  was  Vespucci  sent  to  the  new 
world,  recount  that  when  the  news  of  the  discovery  of  the 
continent,  made  by  Columbus  on  his  third  voyage,  reached 
Spain,  the  bishop  of  Badajoz,  then  minister  at  the  court  of 
Ferdinand  and  an  enemy  of  Columbus,  seized  this  oppor 
tunity  to  injure  him,  and  had  sent  to  Alfonzo  d*  Ojeda 
letters-patent  (signed  only  with  his  name,  and  not  those 
of  the  two  sovereigns,  however),  in  which  Ojeda  was 


268  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

appointed  to  go  in  search  of  the  new  continent  and  other 
countries ;  in  this  mode  seeking  to  diminish  the  authority 
of  Columbus,  who,  being  at  San  Domingo,  could  not  know 
what  was  being  plotted  against  him  in  Spain.  The 
leadership  of  this  fleet  was  attributed  to  Ojeda  and  La 
Cosa ;  and  to  Vespucci  they  only  allude  as  a  simple  pas 
senger,  who  later  usurped  the  praise  of  the  exploit.  The 
defenders  of  Vespucci,  on  the  contrary,  give  him  all  the 
credit.  Vespucci  himself,  to  tell  the  truth,  only  speaks  of 
his  part  with  moderation.  In  the  account  of  his  voyages 
he  says :  l  The  King,  Don  Ferdinand  of  Castile,  wishing 
to  send  four  ships  to  discover  new  lands  toward  the  west, 
I  was  selected  by  his  Highness  to  go  with  this  fleet  to 
aid  in  the  discovery.'  Therefore  in  this,  as  in  the  second 
voyage,  he  speaks  in  the  plural,  as  'we  went/  'we  landed,' 
etc.  .  .  In  no  place  does  Vespucci  mention  Ojeda,  or  La 
Cosa,  as  it  seems  a  sincere  writer  should  have  done. 

"  What  ought  we  to  think,  then,  of  such  opposing 
testimony  1  To  me  it  appears  probable  that  Vespucci  was 
merely  a  simple  passenger  in  this  expedition,  interested 
in  the  equipment  and  traffic,  but  that  the  knowledge  he 
possessed  of  astronomy  —  at  that  date  not  common  — 
rendered  him  useful  to  the  captain  and  pilots,  and  that  he 
was  held  in  great  esteem  among  them.  This  seems  to  me 
probable  from  the  manner  in  which  Peter  Martyr  alludes 
to  him,  not  as  among  the  discoverers  of  America,  but  as  a 
man  skilled  in  astronomy  and  cosmography. 

"In  the  second  place,  I  reflect  that  in  the  year  1507 
Vespucci  was  appointed  to  live  at  Seville,  —  as  related 
by  the  authors  of  the  '  Storia  dei  Viaggi/  on  the  authority 
of  Herrera,  —  so  as  to  designate  the  routes  to  be  followed 
in  navigation  ;  and  that  he  had  the  honourable  title  of 


FOES  AND   FRIENDS.  269 

chief  pilot,  with  the  right  to  call  all  pilots  before  him  for 
examination,  and  an  annual  pension  of  75,000  maravedis 
(small  money  of  about  seven  denari  Venetian),  —  a  title 
and  pension  sufficient  for  a  man  learned  in  the  science  of 
navigation,  but  very  inferior  to  the  merit  of  a  leader  and 
discoverer  of  the  continent  of  the  new  world.  But  the 
employment  given  to  Vespucci  afforded  him  the  opportu 
nity  to  render  his  name  immortal  by  attaching  it  to  the 
newly  discovered  provinces.  As  he  designed  the  maps  for 
navigation,  he  began  by  giving  those  countries  his  own 
name,  —  America  ;  and  this  title,  used  by  navigators  and 
pilots,  became  universal.  The  Spaniards  subsequently 
lamented  this  giving  of  his  name,  but  the  above-quoted 
writers  state  that  'their  regrets  did  not  hinder  the  new 
world  from  being  called  by  this  name ;  and  whether 
Amerigo  had  any  right  to  it  or  not,  it  is  now  too  late  to 
combat  the  fact  after  such  a  long  possession/ 

"  There  remains  only  to  state  briefly  the  relation  that 
Vespucci  has  himself  given  of  the  period  and  end  of  his 
voyages.  Besides  others  mentioned  previously,  we  have 
only  his  account  of  the  third  voyage,  undertaken  by  him 
in  the  year  1501,  in  the  name  of  the  King  of  Portugal. 
An  abridgment  was  published,  written  by  him,  of  all  four 
of  his  voyages,  which  previous  to  that  of  Ramusio  was 
given  to  the  light  by  Simone  Grineo  in  his  'Novus  Orbis,' 
printed  at  Basle  in  1537.  Finally,  the  Canon  Bandini, 
having  found  the  Italian  originals  of  all  these  accounts, 
presented  them  to  the  public.  .  .  .  They  are  the  compila 
tion  of  his  four  voyages,  written  in  a  letter  addressed  to 
Pietro  Soderini,  although  usually  found  premised  with  the 
name  of  Rene  King  of  Jerusalem,  and  Duke  of  Lorraine. 
There  followed  the  letter  of  Vespucci  to  Lorenzo  Pier  di 


270  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

Francesco  de'  Medici  (not  the  Magnifico),  in  which  he 
relates  his  second  voyage  in  1499.  After  this  comes  the 
account  of  the  journey  of  Vasco  da  Gama  to  the  East 
Indies,  in  1497,  already  published  several  times,  but  with 
out  knowing  it  was  the  work  of  Amerigo.  .  .  . 

"  What  is  most  to  be  regretted  is  that  usually  Vespucci 
does  not  name  the  places  he  saw,  save  with  the  general 
name  of  port,  or  island,  which  renders  these  records  of 
much  less  value  to  geography  than  would  be  the  case  had 
he  more  distinctly  designated  the  places  of  the  region. 
The  two  other  voyages  were  undertaken  for  the  King  of 
Portugal.  He  recounts  himself  that,  being  in  Seville,  the 
King  Emmanuel  sent  to  invite  him  to  his  court.  ...  He 
narrates  the  successes  of  these  voyages,  made  in  May,  1501, 
the  result  of  which  (according  to  himself)  was  the  dis 
covery  of  Brazil,  —  a  province  which,  although  not  named 
by  him,  is  clearly  indicated  by  its  situation,  five  degrees 
from  the  equinoctial  line  toward  the  south.  But  here 
again  new  adversaries  rise  against  Vespucci.  The  Spanish 
writers,  especially  Herrera,  affirm  that  at  the  time  Vespucci 
pretended  to  visit  Brazil  he  was  with  Ojeda  in  the  Gulf  of 
Uraba,  or  Darien,  and  that  it  was  on  his  second  voyage 
on  Spanish  ships.  On  the  other  side,  Portuguese  writers 
contend  that  Brazil  was  first  discovered  by  their  own  Pietro 
Alvarez  de  Cabral  in  1500.  That  Vespucci  sailed  to  South 
America  by  commission  of  the  King  of  Portugal  is  certain 
from  the  testimony  of  Peter  Martyr,  a  contemporary  writer, 
and  well  versed  in  such  matters.  He  alludes  to  navigating 
maps  which  he  had  seen.  ...  I  wish  that  some  day  there 
might  be  found  such  indisputable  proofs  as  would  clear 
of  all  doubts  the  life  of  this  celebrated  Florentine,  who 
perhaps  has  been  too  much  praised  by  some,  and  too  much 
blamed  by  others." 


FOES   AND   FRIENDS.  271 

The  image  of  the  Professor  of  Ehetoric,  Tiraboschi, 
rises  before  us,  spectacles  on  nose  (if  he  wore  spec 
tacles),  gravely  deploring  the  lack  of  accuracy  in  the 
hastily  written  letters  of  Vespucci,  which  have  been 
criticised  by  the  world  for  centuries,  and  embellished 
and  corrected  by  more  than  one  hand.  Probably 
in  our  day  Vespucci  would  have  sent  a  telegram  to 
Soderini  from  the  Canaries,  announcing  his  safe 
arrival,  or  have  employed  the  services  of  the  type 
writer  of  the  hotel,  reserving  his  more  valuable  and 
accurate  material  for  the  book  he  intended  to  write. 
These  poor  letters  have  been  transcribed,  translated, 
and  amended,  from  Fra  Gioconda's  Mundus  Novus  to 
the  spurious  missive  relating  to  the  second  voyage 
of  the  Biblioteca  Eiccardiana  of  Florence,  proved 
not  to  be  older  than  the  seventeenth  century  by  the 
paper  and  ink  used,  which  deceived  Humboldt,  who 
examined  it,  as  genuine,  in  his  criticisms,  as  well  as 
Bandini.  The  ability  of  the  germ  of  these  negli 
gent  epistles  charmed  the  public,  arousing  such  an 
interest  as  possibly  induced  Pope  Leo  X.  to  sit  up 
all  night  reading  aloud  the  work  of  Peter  Martyr's 
Oceana  to  his  sister  and  the  cardinals,  —  an  interest 
in  the  new  world  which  may  be  said  to  have  lasted 
ever  since.  As  regards  inaccuracies  in  any  written 
record  of  the  time,  the  original  of  Ferdinand  Colum 
bus'  History  of  the  Admiral  was  lost,  a  translation 
into  Italian  having  previously  been  made  by  Alonzo 
de  Ulloa,  and  subsequently  rendered  again  in  Span 
ish  full  of  errors  in  dates,  distances,  and  proper 


272  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

names,  as  it  exists  in  Barcia's  collection.  What  hand 
effaced  the  title  of  the  great  work  of  Don  Fernando 
Columbus  on  his  tomb  in  the  Seville  cathedral  ? 

The  British  historian,  Dr.  Kobertson,  thus  con 
demns  America's  godfather:  — 

"Amerigo  Vespucci,  a  Florentine  gentleman,  accom 
panied  Ojeda  in  this  voyage.  In  what  station  he  served 
is  uncertain ;  but  as  he  was  an  experienced  sailor,  and 
eminently  skilful  in  all  the  sciences  subservient  to  naviga 
tion  he  seems  to  have  acquired  such  authority  among  his 
companions  that  they  willingly  allowed  him  to  have  a 
chief  share  in  directing  their  operations  during  the  voyage. 
Soon  after  his  return  he  transmitted  an  account  of  his 
adventures  and  discoveries  to  one  of  his  countrymen,  and 
labouring  with  the  vanity  of  a  traveller  to  magnify  his  own 
exploits,  he  had  the  address  and  confidence  to  frame  his 
narrative  so  as  to  make  it  appear  that  he  had  the  glory 
of  having  first  discovered  the  continent  of  the  new  world. 
Amerigo's  account  was  drawn  up  not  only  with  art  but 
with  some  elegance.  It  contained  an  amusing  history  of 
his  voyage,  and  judicious  observations  upon  the  natural 
productions,  the  inhabitants,  and  customs  of  the  countries 
which  he  visited.  As  it  was  the  first  description  of  any 
part  of  the  new  world  that  was  published,  a  performance 
so  well  calculated  to  gratify  the  passion  of  mankind  for 
what  is  new  and  marvellous  circulated  rapidly,  and  was 
read  with  admiration.  The  country  of  which  Amerigo 
was  supposed  to  be  the  discoverer  came  gradually  to  be 
called  by  his  name.  The  caprice  of  mankind,  often  as 
unaccountable  as  unjust,  has  perpetuated  this  error.  By 
the  universal  consent  of  nations  America  is  the  name 


FOES   AND   FRIENDS.  273 

bestowed  on  this  new  quarter  of  the  globe.  The  bold 
pretentions  of  a  fortunate  impostor  have  robbed  the  dis 
coverer  of  the  new  world  of  a  distinction  which  belonged 
to  him.  The  name  of  Amerigo  has  supplanted  that  of 
Columbus,  and  mankind  may  regret  an  act  of  injustice 
which,  having  received  the  sanction  of  time,  it  is  now 
too  late  to  redress."  ("History  of  America,"  book  ii. 
page  79.) 

A  further  argument  against  Vespucci  of  Dr. 
Eobertson  adds :  — 

"It  is  remarkable  that  neither  Gomara  nor  Oviedo, 
the  earliest  Spanish  historians  on  America,  attributes  to 
Vespucci  the  discovery  of  the  continent  of  America. 
Some  pretend  that  these  writers  were  silent  designedly  on 
his  achievements,  but  Martyr  and  Benzoni  (both  Italians) 
cannot  be  accused  of  the  same  partiality." 

Such  is  the  logical  British  condemnation.  Wash 
ington  Irving  only  drifted  with  the  popular  tide  in 
this  perplexing  controversy,  giving  the  usual  version 
of  the  Ojeda  expedition  in  the  third  volume  of  his 
"Life  of  Columbus":  — 

"  Among  the  number  was  the  celebrated  Americo 
Vespucio,  a  Florentine  merchant  who  was  considered  well 
acquainted  with  geography  and  navigation.  .  .  .  Such 
was  the  expedition  which  by  a  singular  train  of  circum 
stances  eventually  gave  the  name  of  this  Florentine  mer 
chant,  Americo  Vespucio,  to  the  whole  of  the  new  world." 

Also,  in  the  appendix  of  the  same  work  it  is 
curious  to  note  how  readily  Irving  falls  into  the 
error  of  finding  it  impossible  that  Vespucci  made  a 

18 


274  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

first  voyage  in  1497,  of  accepting  the  letter  pub 
lished  in  Latin  at  St.  Die*,  in  1507,  as  dedicated  to 
King  Ke'ne',  a  personage  with  whom  Vespucci  never 
came  in  contact,  and  dwells  on  the  gross  inaccura 
cies  which  have  been  judiciously  corrected  by  the 
modern  authors  who  have  inserted  these  letters  in 
their  works.  His  summary  is  this :  — 

"  It  has  been  the  endeavour  of  the  author  to  examine  this 
question  dispassionately ;  and  after  considering  the  state 
ments  and  arguments  advanced  on  either  side,  he  cannot 
resist  a  conviction  that  the  voyage  stated  to  have  been 
made  in  1497  did  not  take  place,  and  that  Vespucci  has 
no  title  to  the  first  discovery  of  the  coast  of  Paria." 

One  would  infer  that  all  things  were  possible  in 
Spain,  where  a  Madrid  butcher  sold  meat  wrapped 
up  in  Oviedo's  first  folio,  and  valuable  documents 
are  known  to  have  been  scattered  and,  lost.  Not 
less  strange  have  been  the  reticences  of  men. 
Columbus  and  his  son  are  reputed  to  have  made.no 
mention  of  Marco  Polo,  who  led  to  the  discovery  of 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  Sir  John  Mandeville, 
while  learning  wisdom  from  the  writings  of  Pope 
Pius  II.,  and  Cardinal  d'Ailly. 

Emerson  condemned  Vespucci :  — 

"  Strange  that  broad  America  must  wear  the  name  of 
a  thief.  Amerigo  Vespucci,  the  pickle-dealer  at  Seville, 
who  went  out  in  1499,  a  subaltern  with  Hojeda,  and 
whose  highest  naval  rank  was  boatswain's  mate  in  an 
expedition  that  never  sailed,  managed  in  this  lying  world 
to  supplant  Columbus  and  baptise  half  the  earth  with 


FOES   AND   FRIENDS.  275 

his  own  dishonest  name."      (John  Fiske's  "  History  of 
America,"  vol.  ii.  p.  162.) 

Why  a  pickle-dealer,  when  Vespucci  was  well 
known  to  have  been  an  agent  of  the  Medici,  and  to 
have  fitted  out  ships  ?  If  the  philosopher  who  gave 
as  the  key-notes  of  life  self-respect,  self-control,  and 
self-reliance,  formed  so  hasty  a  judgment  concerning 
a  man  worthy  of  his  respect,  inferior  minds  may 
well  be  pardoned  for  accepting  the  unreasoning  pre 
judices  of  public  opinion. 

Nothing  is  easier  than  to  persuade  the  world  that 
a  man  is  culpable  instead  of  a  hero.  Travellers  are 
usually  stigmatised  as  untruthful  by  the  comforta 
ble  home-staying  element.  Herodotus  was  deemed 
an  early  liar.  Marco  Polo  was  besought  by  friends 
and  spiritual  advisers,  on  a  bed  of  illness,  to  recant 
some  of  the  marvels  he  had  told  of  far-famed  Cathay, 
and  not  seek  to  enter  heaven  with  a  soul  burdened 
by  so  many  falsehoods.  The  Venetian  stoutly  main 
tained  he  had  not  told  the  half  of  his  adventures. 
Possibly  he  took  sufficient  umbrage  at  the  dulness 
of  his  kinsfolk  on  the  occasion  to  refrain  from  all 
mention  of  the  great  wall  of  China,  or  tea.  John 
Cabot  was  discredited  by  the  men  of  Bristol  as  a 
foreigner.  Fernao  Mendez  Pinto,  who  visited  Japan, 
became  a  synonymous  term  for  general  mendacity 
on  the  strength  of  Congreve's  lines  in  "  Love  for 
Love":  "Mendez  Pinto  was  but  a  type  of  thee, 
thou  liar  of  the  first  magnitude." 


276  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

We  are  familiar  with  the  European  scepticism  re 
specting  the  gorilla,  —  the  half-mythical  monster  of 
African  forest  depths.  How  may  we  determine  that 
in  the  near  future  the  enterprising  English  explorer 
who  listens  to  the  talk  of  the  monkey-folk  may  not 
resolve  such  seeming  chatter  into  a  language  taught 
in  the  schools,  and  eternal  disgrace  fall  to  the  por 
tion  of  a  playful  Navarette  disposed  to  ridicule  all 
iguanas  as  innovations  ? 

The  defence  of  Vespucci  is  conclusive.  We  like 
to  place  Alexander  Von  Humboldt  as  the  great 
arbiter  of  the  reinstatement  of  the  Florentine  gentle 
man,  finding,  indeed,  many  "unjustifiable  supposi 
tions,  at  first,"  in  his  "  Examen  Critique,"  but  readily 
welcoming  the  researches  of  a  fresh  mind  in  Varn- 
hagen,  in  old  age,  with  the  liberality  of  a  fine 
nature. 

The  first  defender  of  Vespucci  was  Ferdinand 
Columbus.  Not  only  did  he  refrain  from  blame  of 
Vespucci,  but  he  is  known  to  have  had  amicable  re 
lations  with  him  and  his  nephew.  His  moderation 
has  puzzled  the  most  hostile  accusers.  He  had  a 
copy  of  the  "  Cosmographia  Introductio  "  in  his  library 
for  eighteen  years,  read  and  annotated  the  volume 
with  care,  without  protest  of  the  suggestion  of 
Waldseemiiller  to  name  Brazil  America  in  honor  of 
Vespucci,  when  he  was  ever  ready  to  attack  a  rival 
of  his  father.  His  acquiescence  proves  that  he  knew 
all  about  the  voyages,  and  interpreted  them  in  the 
best  light. 


FOES  AND  FRIENDS.  277 

The  florid  praises  of  Bandini  are  well  known,  and 
the  eulogy  of  Canovai.  The  latter  gives  some  grace 
ful  thoughts  to  his  much  abused  compatriot :  — 

"  The  Spaniards,  ever  eager  to  enrich  themselves,  had 
no  sensibility  for  the  beauties  of  America,  but  are  like 
the  mammon  of  Milton,  forgetting  every  other  felicity  of 
the  sky,  who  remains  with  his  eyes  fixed  on  the  golden 
pavement.  .  .  .  The  thirst  for  gold  awakened  the  thirst 
for  blood,  as  cruel  ones  kill  the  innocent  bee  to  possess  the 
honey ;  we  see  violence  and  murder  together  carrying  in  the 
hand  the  lightning  and  the  knife,  more  fierce  than  wolves, 
more  barbarous  than  tigers.  .  .  .  The  conviction  that  they 
had  found  the  Terrestrial  Paradise  in  America  was  shared 
both  by  Columbus  and  Vespucci ;  but  Columbus  speaks 
of  it  with  a  coarse  fanaticism  which  inspires  compassion, 
while  Amerigo  evinces  a  delicacy  and  a  sobriety  which  do 
honour  to  his  good  sense. ...  In  Brazil  Amerigo  displayed 
the  talents  of  a  Theophrastus  and  a  Pliny.  Galileo  and  Ves 
pucci,  to  quote  Averani,  have  proved  that  one  cannot  lift  the 
gaze  to  the  heavens,  or  lower  it  to  the  earth  again  without 
beholding  the  glory  of  Florentines." 

"The  history  of  mankind  is  the  history  of  its 
great  men,"  says  Carlyle.  "  To  find  out  these,  clear 
the  dirt  from  them,  and  place  them  on  their  proper 
pedestal  is  the  function  of  the  historian.  He  cannot 
have  a  nobler  one." 

Such  has  been  notably  the  achievement  of  three 
keen  and  clear  minds  of  our  time,  —  Varnhagen, 
John  Fiske,  and  Harrisse.  It  must  be  a  matter  of 
national  pride  that  the  last  two  students  were  born 


278  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

on  American  soil.  These,  laboriously  seeking  in 
formation  at  the  source,  and  disentangling  the  skein 
of  years,  with  a  well-directed  blow  of  inquiry  at 
supposed  authority  have  shattered  the  house  of 
cards  built  on  the  sands  by  the  foes  of  Vespucci. 
Doubtless  public  opinion,  with  the  facility  of  a 
shallow  river,  will  henceforth  shift  its  channel  and 
readily  perceive  how  impossible  it  was  that  Ves 
pucci  intended  any  deception  as  to  the  number  of 
his  voyages  and  the  course  pursued  in  them. 

M.  Harrisse  states  in  his  "  Bibliotheca  Americana 
Vetustissima  " :  — 

"After  a  diligent  study  of  all  the  original  documents, 
we  feel  constrained  to  say  that  there  is  not  a  particle  of 
evidence,  direct  or  indirect,  implicating  Americus  Ves- 
pucius  in  an  attempt  to  foist  his  name  on  this  continent." 

Oh,  earthly  fame  !  What  is  it  worth  as  the  dust 
of  centuries  gathers  on  the  tomb  of  a  man  wronged 
by  his  kind,  in  the  endeavour  to  tarnish  reputation, 
and  falsely  attribute  to  him  deeds  done  after  his 
death  ?  If  we  may  think  of  Amerigo  Vespucci  in 
some  shadowy  sphere  as  a  phantom  musing  apart 
on  his  own  career,  while  another  Dante  passes  by 
with  pensive  salutation  of  a  Florentine,  it  is  assur 
edly  in  the  conviction  of  his  rejoicing  that  the  tardy 
laurel  crown  of  a  universal  restitution  has  been 
proffered  him  by  Americans. 


CHAPTEE  XV. 

A  SHRINE  OF  MEMORIES. 

THE  brown  tower  of  the  Church  of  Ognissanti  at 
Florence  rises  in  slender  and  graceful  outline  on  the 
blue  sky.  At  dawn  the  bells  rang  out  a  greeting  to 
the  Easter  day  of  the  month  of  March,  an  early 
festival  of  a  cloudless  winter  of  smiting  sunshine, 
highways  deep  in  white  dust,  and  a  rainless  year. 
Mute  since  the  sepulchre  was  decked  with  flowers 
and  the  ivory-white  sprays  of  vetch  on  Holy  Thurs 
day,  and  the  Miserere  chanting  of  Good  Friday  in 
this  faded  old  sanctuary,  with  its  famous  frescoes 
and  tile  pavement  of  humid  bricks,  the  note  of  the 
bells  is  full  and  rich,  marking  with  vibrating  into 
nations  the  passage  of  time  in  the  softly  lapsing 
years.  At  six  o'clock  in  the  morning  the  first  Mass 
of  the  day  is  celebrated,  and  no  good  citizen,  rich  or 
poor,  of  the  Vespucci  quarter  of  the  town  will  fail 
to  attend,  if  only  to  reap  a  benediction  on  his  indi 
vidual  career  for  the  ensuing  twelvemonth.  A 
priest  waits  in  the  sacristy  at  this  early  hour  to 
bless  the  harvest  of  eggs,  boiled  hard,  and  peeled  of 
the  shell,  presented  by  the  faithful.  The  function 
lasts  until  noon,  and  all  the  parish  obeys  the  sum 
mons.  The  burly  butcher  brings  his  store  to  the 


280  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

altar-steps,  as  does  his  neighbor  the  wine-merchant, 
and  even  the  vegetable-dealer  (the  ortolano),  who 
has  a  little  den  of  a  shop,  stocked  with  salad,  cab 
bages,  artichokes,  onions,  and  tomatoes  further  along 
the  grimy  length  of  street,  fetches  a  platter  of  eggs 
to  be  sanctified  with  an  eye  to  business,  and  for  the 
benefit  of  religious-minded  customers  during  the 
festa.  Every  one  will  partake  of  the  Pascal  lamb 
for  dinner  in  celebration  of  the  great  anniversary  of 
the  springtime. 

How  many  hundreds  of  years  ago  Amerigo  Ves 
pucci  emerged  from  the  family  mansion  of  his  race, 
now  the  hospital,  in  the  early  morning,  in  response 
to  the  peal  of  the  bells  from  some  sanctuary  of  the 
parish !  The  church  and  monastery  of  the  Mino 
rites  of  Ognissanti  were  not  completed  for  another 
century.  What  huge  baskets  of  eggs  from  the  coun 
try  property  must  have  been  carried  by  the  servants 
of  a  large  household  on  such  an  occasion  ! 

Amerigo  first  arose  for  the  Mass  of  six  o'clock,  as 
a  child,  led  forth  by  his  mother,  delighted  with  the 
crowds,  the  bustle  of  preparation,  the  spectacle  of 
the  day  in  store,  the  feasting  on  the  country  produce. 
Later  he  walked  with  the  men  in  a  more  desultory 
and  perfunctory  manner,  having  attained  the  dignity 
of  adolescence,  when  one  seeks  furtively  for  the  down 
of  beard  on  lip  and  cheek,  and  renders  one's  voice 
as  deep  and  gruff  as  possible,  especially  in  speaking 
to  the  women  and  girls,  disposed  to  pet  one  unduly. 
The  fairies  that  wove  their  spells  around  the  cradle 


A   SHRINE   OF   MEMORIES.  281 

of  the  infant  Vespucci  bore  the  gift  of  an  Easter 
egg  unparalleled  in  the  rich  and  varied  history  of 
Florence  and  of  Europe,  containing  the  puppet 
America,  dusky-hued,  decked  with  beads,  feathers, 
and  gold  ornaments,  the  like  of  which  no  man  had 
yet  seen. 

On  the  Easter  morning  of  March  the  church  and 
the  Vespucci  quarter  are  full  of  memories.  The 
festival  and  the  worshippers  are  alike  unchanged. 
The  old  gentleman,  whose  boast  it  is  that  the  blood 
of  the  Vespucci  flows  in  his  veins,  is  punctilious  in 
attendance  on  the  Mass  of  six  o'clock.  He  is  ac 
companied  by  his  servant  carrying  a  discreetly  small 
covered  basket  of  the  blessed  eggs.  Neither  master 
nor  man  is  especially  devout,  each  holding  many 
modern  sceptical  ideas,  but  they  do  not  fail  in  observ 
ance  of  this  custom  of  celebrating  the  symbolical 
rites  of  the  egg  with  all  the  world  of  Greeks  and 
Roman  Catholics.  Their  dwelling,  situated  in  a 
dark  nook  in  the  shadow  of  the  hospital,  bears 
traces  of  having  been  one  of  the  city  towers  now 
incorporated  in  the  massive  masonry  of  surrounding 
buildings,  yet  retaining  certain  characteristic  fea 
tures  of  the  original  construction.  The  walls  are 
of  stone,  the  interstices  filled  with  a  durable  cement 
of  lime  and  gravel,  while  irregular  apertures  indi 
cate  the  loopholes  from  which  the  arrows  of  cross 
bows  were  discharged  at  assailants  in  the  day  of 
Amerigo  Vespucci.  The  narrow  door  has  heavy 
posts  of  wood,  with  a  bust  of  St.  John  in  terra- 


282  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

cotta  above,  as  guardian  of  the  habitation,  the  case 
ments  are  protected  with  rusty  iron  gratings,  and 
the  parapet  is  ornamented  with  square  machicola 
tions.  The  heavy  arch  adjacent,  now  used  as  a  shop 
by  the  dealer  in  oil,  maccaroni,  and  maize-flour, 
once  led  to  the  stables  where  the  steeds  of  the 
Middle  Ages  were  sheltered  in  readiness  for  a  fray, 
or  journeying  to  Home,  and  over  the  mountain  passes 
of  Bologna  to  northern  Italy. 

In  the  history  of  Florence  such  strongholds  are 
affirmed  to  have  been  first  adopted  by  the  Etruscans, 
as  places  of  shelter  and  defence.  The  nobles  of  the 
tenth  century  began  to  attach  the  towers  to  their 
rude  habitations,  and  in  the  twelfth  century  the  town 
boasted  of  more  than  one  hundred.  In  1247  the  Arno 
capital  was  divided  into  six  quarters  (sestieri),  and, 
feuds  constantly  arising,  the  citizens  fought  each  other 
from  house  to  house.  Thus  the  fastnesses  of  the  Uberti 
were  situated  near  the  Palazzo  Vecchio,  those  of  the 
Abati,  Telesei,  Ginochi,  and  Galigari  were  massed 
about  the  Porta  San  Pietro  and  the  Scarafaggio,  while 
the  Tosinghi  held  a  place  adjacent  to  the  Church  of 
San  Pancrazio,  and  the  lofty  pinnacle  of  the  Adimari 
threatened  to  demolish  the  baptistery  in  its  fall.  If 
the  feudal  shell  imbedded  in  the  labyrinth  of  build 
ings  of  a  crowded  quarter  does  not  possess  the  stately 
proportions  of  the  turret  of  the  Gianfigliazzi  family 
on  the  Piazza  Santa  Trinita,  retain  the  historic  value 
of  the  tower  on  the  site  of  Dante's  birthplace,  or 
have  the  religious  associations  of  that  of  St.  Zeno- 


Loggia  de   Lantf. 


A   SHRINE   OF  MEMORIES.  283 

bius  on  the  Via  Por  Santa  Maria  often  decked  with 
flowers,  on  occasion  it  becomes  resplendent.  When 
the  birthday  of  the  queen  is  celebrated  the  tower 
is  lighted  from  cellar  to  battlements  with  wax- 
torches  held  in  the  iron  rings  and  sockets  of  the 
masonry,  as  in  the  Middle  Ages,  the  humblest  arti 
san  still  making  his  modest  casement  glow  with  red 
and  white,  the  colours  of  the  commonwealth,  while 
palaces  sparkle  with  crowns  of  tinted  flame,  and 
clusters  of  stars  in  the  brackets  of  filagree  iron 
work  set  at  the  angles  of  the  walls.  To-day  the 
populace  may  gather  in  the  glare  of  electricity 
to  listen  to  the  harmonies  of  a  military  band  in  the 
Loggia  de'  Lanzi  of  the  Piazza  Signoria;  the  wax- 
torches  flickering  on  the  old  tower  mark  a  date  when 
the  people  sought  the  same  spot  to  witness  a  dis 
play  of  artificial  fires,  and  dance,  and  sing,  to  the 
music  of  the  flutes,  viols,  cymbals,  and  trumpets, 
in  lieu  of  the  melodies  of  Donizetti  and  Verdi. 

The  old  gentleman  dwells  modestly  on  the  first 
floor,  his  manage  suggestive  of  the  frugality  which 
astonished  Francesco  Cibo  in  the  daily  habits  of  his 
father-in-law,  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent.  Like  such 
Parisians  as  Auber  he  never  quits  the  town,  except 
for  a  fortnight  at  the  mineral  springs  of  Montecatini, 
and  an  autumn  visit  to  a  relative  in  the  Val  d'Arno 
at  the  vintage.  He  sips  his  cup  of  black  coffee  of 
a  morning,  dines  at  four  o'clock,  and  seeks  club  or 
theatre  for  evening  recreation,  indifferent  to  sultry 
heat  and  bitter  cold.  The  servant  is  also  an  old 


284  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

Florentine,  witty,  tolerant,  and  economical.  Neither 
feudal  retainer  of  some  country  estate,  nor  foster 
brother  of  his  employer,  he  is  a  brigadier  of  cara- 
binieri,  retired  on  a  pension.  He  can  brown,  crisply, 
a  frittata,  compose  a  salad,  polish  weapons  and 
carved  furniture,  mend  porcelain,  and  write  letters, 
flowery  and  courteous  in  tone,  with  many  felicitous 
turns  of  expression.  His  superiority  is  acknowl 
edged  by  the  entire  neighbourhood  on  all  questions 
of  politics  and  municipal  rules.  He  belongs  less  to 
the  class  of  Montanelli's  portrait  of  Stentorello,  as 
the  typical  Tuscan  valet,  sly,  unfaithful,  and  a  glib 
liar  even,  than  the  British  menial,  who,  after  the 
Plague  of  1350,  is  reputed  to  have  waxed  inde 
pendent,  and  demanded  higher  wages.  The  ex- 
brigadier  sews  together  the  leaves  of  the  serial 
printed  in  the  daily  journal,  to  read  at  his  leisure 
during  summer  hours,  spectacles  on  nose,  seated  in 
the  doorway  on  the  street. 

Eeturned  from  church  the  old  gentleman  gravely 
selects  an  egg  from  the  basket,  and  eats  it,  after 
which  the  domestic  retires  to  a  cellar  larder  with 
the  remainder,  and  consumes  his  portion. 

The  wizard  emerges  suddenly  from  a  crooked  alley 
where  he  has  an  abode  in  the  rear  of  the  hospital 
buildings.  He  seeks  the  Church  of  Ognissanti  on 
Easter  morning  to  repeat  a  prayer,  and  issues  forth 
with  several  blessed  eggs  secured  in  a  red  pocket- 
handkerchief.  He  is  a  most  fantastic  figure  in  a 
coat  of  bottle-green  tint,  with  capes,  an  odd  cap, 


A   SHRINE   OF   MEMORIES.  285 

tinted  goggles,  and  gaiters.  Once  a  week  he  makes 
a  round  of  adjacent  streets,  blows  on  a  brass  trumpet, 
and  pauses  to  bow  to  the  public,  begging  for  alms. 
Wind,  storm,  and  August  heat  bring  this  weird  old 
man  with  the  punctuality  of  the  sun.  He  does  not 
don  the  brown  robe  of  the  mediaeval  astrologer,  with 
signs  of  the  zodiac  wrought  on  the  girdle,  but  he 
carries  thin  sheets  of  paper,  red  and  green,  for  sale, 
in  the  wallet  slung  over  his  shoulder.  What  cab 
alistic  devices  of  magic  are  printed  on  these  leaflets? 
Are  they  combinations  of  lucky  numbers  for  the 
weekly  drawing  of  the  lottery,  in  guise  of  wheels  of 
fortune  ?  Are  they  symbols  of  the  Twelve  Houses 
of  Heaven,  and  their  powers  ?  Do  they  indicate  the 
influences  of  the  Dragon's  head  or  tail,  the  sway  of 
the  Seven  Planets,  with  reference  to  the  day  of 
birth  in  a  series  of  figures,  designating  whether 
under  Mars  one  will  quarrel  with  kindred,  be  sub 
ject  to  gout  and  apoplexy  if  Jupiter  is  in  a  bad 
aspect,  and  reap  wealth  from  the  sea  under  the 
smiles  of  Venus  ?  The  brass  trumpet  yields  a  mar 
tial  note,  the  wizard  bends  his  head  before  the  keen 
tramontane  wind,  while  his  reedy  voice  quavers 
forth :  - 

"  Good  health  and  long  life,  ladies  and  gentlemen ! " 
Has  he  not  drunk  of  a  subtle  elixir  compounded 
of  hellebore,  sage,  rue,  mace,  or  gillyflowers  to  pro 
long  his  years  ?  Is  he  not  a  sort  of  Wandering  Jew, 
uncanny,  mysterious,  forgotten  by  death,  who  may 
have  been  here  when  Amerigo  Vespucci  was  a  boy  ? 


286  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

In  a  shabby  house  overlooking  the  hospital  build 
ings  lives  the  upholsterer.  Humblest  drudge  of 
the  carpet-mending,  wool-beating,  and  mattress- 
sewing  class,  he  is  a  tiny,  bent  old  man,  who  creeps 
forth  to  pray,  at  dawn,  in  the  Church  of  Ognissanti, 
summoned  by  the  bells.  For  what  boon  does  he 
pray,  as  the  sands  ebb  in  the  hour-glass,  unless  for 
the  daily  crust  of  a  hunger-pinched  household, 
shared  with  the  patient  son  and  pale  daughter  who 
has  coughed  for  weary  years  ?  On  Easter  day  he 
carries  three  eggs  to  the  sanctuary  in  a  napkin. 
The  fineness  of  the  damask,  and  the  bow  of  ribbon, 
suggest  the  display  of  linen  made  by  proud  house 
wives  on  the  festa  through  Tuscany. 

The  old  flower-vendor  pauses  to  nibble  half  of  a 
sanctified  egg,  for  that  is  sufficient  to  ensure  a  bless 
ing  on  a  Christian,  and  saves  the  other  half  in  a 
morsel  of  paper  as  he  prepares  to  sally  forth  on  his 
daily  round  of  the  Piazza  Manin,  and  the  Arno 
quarter  beyond.  He  has  the  smiling  face  of  an  old 
child.  In  winter  he  wears  a  blue  military  cloak, 
and  tilts  a  green  cotton  umbrella  over  his  shoulder 
in  a  rainy  season.  The  harvest  of  his  basket  marks 
the  calendar  of  the  year  in  the  Flower  City.  Jan 
uary  has  branches  of  holly,  but  defies  frost  with 
sprays  of  heliotrope,  snowdrops,  and  masses  of 
scarlet  plebeian  geranium ;  autumn  blooms  in  mari 
golds,  tuberoses,  and  chrysanthemums,  gold,  tawny- 
brown,  creamy-hued;  and  now  early  spring  over 
flows  the  receptacle  with  Lenten  lilies,  primroses, 


A   SHRINE   OF  MEMORIES.  287 

hyacinths  in  pyramids  of  exquisite  bells,  pink,  lav 
ender,  and  flesh-colored,  and  violets ;  while  summer 
will  be  fragrant  with  bundles  of  fresh  herbs  to 
tempt  housekeepers,  after  the  butterfly  throng  of 
strangers  has  flown  away.  In  mid-summer  colour 
and  scent  are  replaced  by  fruit,  —  pears,  figs,  peaches, 
lemons,  and  pomegranates,  —  seeds,  and  nuts,  where 
with  to  tempt  an  occasional  small  boy,  who,  as  a 
Florentine,  will  by  no  means  waste  his  pennies  on 
flowers.  At  times  the  Fiorajo  carries,  gun-wise, 
a  bough  of  pink  almond  blossoms,  bunches  of  red 
poppies,  and  the  iris,  with  delicate  silken  petals 
rolled  in  a  sheath  of  envelope  resembling  paper,  and 
clusters  of  alabaster  white  lilies.  He  knows  that 
foreign  ladies  will  madly  essay  to  paint  these  per 
ishable  models  on  vase  and  screen.  He  has  a  quirk 
and  a  jest  for  everybody,  but  he  does  not  wheedle, 
or  complain,  and  evinces  a  quiet  self  respect.  Busi 
ness  is  not  so -bad,  and  the  weather  never  too  in 
clement,  although  he  admits  that  the  December 
morning  was  a  trifle  chilly  when  he  rose  at  four 
o'clock.  He  has  eaten  a  portion  of  polenta,  and  will 
partake  of  a  minestra  (soup)  with  the  family  at 
night,  when  his  children  return  from  their  trades. 
He  has  long  survived  the  robust  old  wife  who  sat 
in  a  bower  of  flower-pots  on  the  stone  bench  of  a 
palace  of  the  Borgogissanti,  and  presided  over  a 
brass  can  on  a  stand,  in  sultry  weather,  opposite  the 
barracks,  containing  some  harmless  beverage,  sold 
by  the  glass.  Ah,  what  memories  the  cheery  voice 


288  AMERICA'S  GODFATHER. 

of  the  Fiorajo  evoke,  of  smiles  and  tears,  of  life  and 
death,  floating  in  the  windows  with  the  passing 
years ! 

"Belle  rose!"  he  pipes.  "Who  buys?"  This 
group,  dwelling  in  the  Vespucci  quarter  of  Flor 
ence,  and  responding  to  the  call  of  the  Easter  bells 
of  the  church  built  by  the  monks  who  founded  the 
portion  of  the  town,  with  their  especial  industry, 
form  links  in  the  chain  of  humanity  binding  to 
gether  the  past  and  the  present,  marking  changes, 
and  yet  remaining  essentially  unchanged.  The  old 
gentleman  of  the  tower,  and  his  humble  neighbours 
confirm  the  theory  that  the  air  of  Florence  is  unus 
ually  favourable  to  longevity.  These  old  men  have 
the  strong,  conservative  force  which  makes  all  na 
tions  kindred  in  those  who  endure  patiently,  serenely, 
and  temperately  to  the  end  of  a  long  life,  amidst  all 
the  wreckage  of  daily  strife,  passion,  epidemic,  and 
suicide. 

The  light  of  noon,  and  the  sound  of  the  bells 
penetrate  the  colonnade  of  the  Uffizi  with  the  statues 
gazing  forth  at  the  cloudless  Easter  of  another  year 
from  their  respective  niches. 

What  does  it  matter  to  us  which  of  the  early 
discoverers  of  America  first  gained  the  goal  of  the 
shore  of  a  new  continent?  For  them  the  storms 
and  difficulties  in  threading  unknown  currents,  with 
frequent  wreck,  sickness,  and  other  hardships;  for 
us  the  complete  fulfilment  of  each  navigator  suc 
ceeding  others  in  a  vast  scheme  of  destiny.  Had 


A    SHRINE    OF   MEMORIES.  289 

not  Columbus  sighted  land  Cabral  would  inevitably 
have  been  blown  out  of  the  course  to  the  east  he 
was  pursuing  to  the  coast  of  Brazil  by  seemingly 
adverse  winds. 

All  men  are  bound  to  love  and  seek  the  truth. 
Therefore  when  spring  blooms  afresh  in  the  Flower 
City  let  the  young  American  not  fail  to  pause 
before  the  statue  of  Vespucci  with  a  sentiment  of 
filial  respect.  In  justice  he  should  recall  the  birth 
right  of  this  sailor,  in  all  its  manifold  significance, 
and  meditate  on  the  words  of  Lord  Macaulay; 
"We  doubt  whether  any  country  of  Europe,  our 
own  excepted,  has  at  the  present  time  reached  so 
high  a  point  of  wealth  and  civilisation  as  some  parts 
of  Italy  had  attained  four  hundred  years  ago."  The 
British  historian  thus  referred  to  the  description  of 
Florence  given  by  Giovanni  Villani  in  the  four 
teenth  century. 

Truly  a  springtime  is  coming,  even  an  eternal 
spring,  when  all  that  is  dead,  and  deserved  not  to 
die,  shall  blossom  again  and  live  forever. 

Amerigo  Vespucci  left  no  children,  but  he  held 
the  infant  America  at  the  font,  not  of  the  old 
baptistery  of  his  native  inland  town,  but  of  the 
world. 


19 


INDEX. 


ABDELASIS,  147. 
Academy  del  Cimento,  68. 

delfa  Crusca,  68. 

Instancabile,  68. 

of  Apatista,  68. 
Acciajuoli,  Biondella,  95. 

Francesco,  95. 

Laudomine,  95,  96. 

Margherita,  95. 

Nerozo,  95. 

Niccolo,  69. 
Accorso,  Taddeo,  6. 
Agli,  Antonio,  73. 
Albert,  Duke  of  Bavaria,  90. 
Albizzi,  Luca  di  Piero  Degli,  94. 
Alcazar,  147. 
Alchemy,  66. 
Alexander  VI.,  234. 
Alfonso  II.,  50. 

of  Aragon,  41,  42. 
Alphonsine  Tablets,  81. 
Alterati,  68. 

Amerigo  a  common  name,  55. 
Amerigo  Vespucci.     See  Vespucci. 
Annunziata,  Church  of  the,  75. 
Arentino,  Guido,  9, 
Aristo,  98. 

Arlotto.    See  Mainardi. 
Arno,  The,  3,  140. 
Astrologers  often  consulted,  64. 
Aurispa,  63. 

BALBOA,  186. 

Baldi,  Guido,  87,  88. 

Bandini,  41,  62,  66,  74,  76,  77,  112, 

116,  120,  142,  153,  189,  196,  213, 

215,  269,  271,  273,  277. 


Bardi,  119. 

Barga,  Conquest  of,  8. 

Bargello,  12. 

Bartolommei,  Girolamo,  74. 

Bartolommeo,  50. 

Bartolozzi,    Francesco,    200,    210, 

211,  262. 

Bastides,  Rodrigo  de,  194. 
Becchio,  Guglielmo,  73. 
Behring,  10. 

'Bello,  tavern  of  Michele  del,  75. 
Benedict  XI.,  58. 
Bentivoglio,  Antonio,  42. 
Benzoni,  260. 

Berardi,  105,  106,  136,  146, 153. 
Bergamo,  67. 
Bermuda,  183. 
Biscayen,  Jean.     See  Cosa,  Juan 

dela. 
Blacks  and  the  Whites,  Conflict  of 

the,  57. 

Bobadilla,  187. 
Boccaccio,  43, 100. 
Bologna,  College  of,  70,  71. 
Boniface  VIII.,  58. 
Borgia,  Lucrezia,  24. 
Brabant,  Duke  of,  89,  90. 
Brunellesco,  80. 
Burchiello.     See  Nanni. 
Burgundy,  Duke  of,  92,  93. 
Buonomini,  41. 

CABOTS,  10, 102, 110, 172, 199,  209, 

258,  275. 

Cabral,  229,  270,  289. 
Cadalso,  156. 
Calabria,  Duke  of,  42. 


292 


INDEX. 


Cambio,  Arnolfo  di,  7. 
Canale,  Martino  da,  69. 
Canary  Islands,  179. 
Cano,  Sebastian  del,  155. 
Canovai,  110,  196,  277. 
Canto  alle  Farino,  19. 
Canto  alia  Paglia,  58. 
Caparra,  Niccolo,  58. 
Caponsachi  family,  58. 
Cappadocia,  53. 
Capponi,  Marchese  Gino,  264. 

Piero,  3. 

Capra,  Arrigo,  67. 
Cardinal  of  Prato,  48,  58. 
Carraiu  Bridge,  3,  44,  47;  Festival 

of  the,  48,  49. 
Cascine,  38. 
Castelcaro,  96. 
Catano,  Manuel,  258. 
Cathedral,  12. 

Cauldron,  Society  of  the,  68. 
Cavalcanti,  73. 
Cellini,  Benvenuto,  9. 
Cerchi  family,  Gardens  of,  45. 
Cerezo,  Maria,  110, 142, 143,247,258. 
Charlemagne,  70, 148. 
Charles  IV.,  70,  139. 

V.,  58, 125. 

VI.,  91-93. 

VII.,  43. 

VIIL,  42. 
Charlevoix,  263. 
Cibo,  Francesco,  283. 
Cieco,  68. 
Cimabue,  9. 
Cino,  Bernardo,  89,  90. 
Clement  VI.,  91. 
Clisson,  Olivier  de,  91. 
Codro,  Micer,  255. 
Coelho,  Gonzale?,  109,  235. 
Coeli,  Duke  of  Medina,  192. 
Coaur,  Jacques,  100. 
Colonna,  Serafina,  50. 
Columbus,  Bartholomew,  252. 

Christopher,  81,  304,  106,  110- 
112,  120,  136, 145,  148,  150- 


152,  155,  157,  159-162,  169, 
171,  180,  185,  186,  190-192, 
194,  195,  197,  199,  206,  208, 
209,  219,  225,  233,  239,  242, 
244,  250,  252,  255,  256,  260- 
268,  273,  274,  277,  284. 

Columbus,  Diego,  106,  250. 

Ferdinand,  106,  250,  260,  265, 
271,272,276;  tomb  of,  145. 

Contractacion,  Casa  de,  249,  252. 

Cook,  10. 

Copernicus,  73. 

Corsini,  89. 

Cortez,  158,  239. 

Cosa,  Juan  de  la,  108,  178, 179, 190, 
193-195,  200,  201,  209,  248,  251, 
255. 

Cosimo,  8,  68.  See  also  Medici, 
Cosimo  de'. 

Council  of  Two  Hundred,  40. 

DANTE,  43,  74,  83,  100,  149,  214, 

278,  282. 

David,  bronze  statue  of,  3. 
Davis,  10. 
Degli  Spini,  89. 
Diamond,  Spezieria  of  the,  75. 
Diaz,  Bartolomeo,  233. 
Didier,  Charles,  125. 
Diemen,  Mary  Van,  23. 
Dondi,  Giovanni,  149,  150. 

Jacopo,  149. 
Drake,  10. 
Duomo,  30;  square  of  the,  74. 

EARLY  map-making,  252,  253. 
Egyptian  Museum,  30. 
Emanuel,  king  of  Portugal,  5,  109, 
114,150,155,215,219,235,257,270. 
Emerson,  274. 
Emmanuel,  Victor,  64. 
Este,  Duke  Ercole  d',  76. 
Euminius,  63. 

FAFIA  y  Sousa,  150. 
Fedele,  Cassandra,  50. 


INDEX. 


293 


Ferdinand  of  Spain,  5,  102,  106, 
109,  110,  145,  186,  187,  189,  190, 
197,  214,  216,  246,  247,  251,  252, 
267,  268. 

Ferrucio,  3. 

Fibonacci,  Leonardo,  72. 

Fiesole,  convent  of,  62. 

Fire  of  1304,  58. 

Fiske,  John,  277. 

Florence,  academy  of,  68,  69;  cos 
tumes  of,  60,  61 ;  festivals  of,  56 ; 
gates  of  ancient,  44;  houses  of, 
46 ;  in  time  of  Amerigo  Vespucci, 
43  et  seq.\  night  in,  6,  7;  Old 
Market  of,  60;  tourists  in,  12; 
trades  of,  47 ;  wealth  of,  45. 

Florentine  Republic,  8. 

Florida,  182,  183. 

Flower-shows,  3. 

Foix,  Germaine  de,  247. 

Foligno,  Federigo  Frezzi  da,  74. 

Fonseca,  Juan  Rodriguez,  102,  106, 
190,  191. 

Foscari,  Francesco,  43. 
Marco,  46. 

Francia,  Francesco,  43. 

Franzezi,  Napoleone,  42. 

Frascati,  tavern  of,  75. 

Frederic  I.,  43. 

Fregoso,  Pietro,  43. 

Frobisher,  10. 

GALILEO,  5,  23.  43,  68,   73,   100, 

225,  277. 

Gama,  Vasco  di,  115,  215,  270. 
Garcia,  Christobal,  200. 
Gasparone,  63. 
Ghirlandajo,  29,  45,  143. 
Giglio,  spezieria  of  the,  75. 
Ginori,  Carlo,  97. 
Giocondo,    Fra    Bartolomeo,    112, 

215,  271. 
Giotto,  9. 

Giovanni  di  Antonio,  26. 
Giralda,  145, 147, 148, 151, 154, 185. 
Gnomon  in  the  Cathedral,  80,  81. 


Gomara,  Francesco  Lopez  de,  262. 
Gonsalvo,  158,  246. 
Gozzoli,  Benozzo,  17. 
Gradenigo,  Jacopo,  74. 
Grazie  bridge,  44. 
Gregory  XL,  86. 
Grineo,  Simone,  269. 
Guadalquivir,  122,  140,   141,  154, 

155,  157. 
Guarino,  63. 
Guerra,  Christoval,  160. 

Luis,  160. 
Guever,  147. 
Guicciardini,  5. 
Guild  of  silk,  balls  of,  76. 
Guyot,  183. 

HARISSE,  277,  278. 
Harmony,  School  of,  68. 
Henry  VI.,  43. 
Hermandad  of  Castile,  126. 
Herrera,  110,  144,172,199,260-262, 

268,  270. 

Honorius  IV.,  69. 
Horn,  Schouten  Van,  10.     * 
Hotel  Washington,  1,  12. 
Humboldt,  276. 

INNOCENT  VIIL,  42,  253. 
Irving,  Washington,  273. 
Isabella,  50,  134-136,  187,  190-192, 
214,  246,  247,  252. 

JAQUES,  Cristoval,  235. 

Jesus  the  Pilgrim,  Church  of,  76. 

Joan  of  Arc,  43. 

Joanna  of  Spain,  24,  25,  246,  249. 

John  XXII.,  69. 

KERGUELKN,  10. 
Kingsley,  Charles,  2. 

LA  FLORIANA,  76. 

La  Guaranita,  opera  of,  6. 

Landuccio,  97. 

Langle,  Marquis  de,  139. 


294 


INDEX. 


Las  Casas,  112,  259,  260. 
Latini,  Brunette,  69. 
Latour,  Antoine  de,  263. 
Le'brija,  Antonio  de,  164. 
Leo  X.,  98. 
Leon,  Battista  Alberti,  9. 

Ponce  de,  158,  183. 
Leopardi,  77. 
Lily,  Church  of  the,  81. 
Lion,  Bell  of  the,  7. 
Lisbon,  218,  219. 
Loggia  de'  Lanzi,  6,  8,  283. 
Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  6,  42,  50, 

75,  77,  111,   113,   117,  204,  207, 

210,  219,  226,  283. 
Lothario,  70. 
Louis  le  De'bonnaire,  53. 
Louis  XL,  42. 
Louis  XII.,  246,  247. 
Lullo,  Raimoudo,  66. 
Lung'  Arno  Amerigo  Vespucci,  16, 

18,  20;  scenes  in  the,  17. 

MACCHIAVELLI,  5,  82,  83,  100. 
Magellan,  10,  155,  160,  161,  216, 

241. 

Magistracy  of  Abundance,  19. 
Mainardi,*Arlotto,  76,  80. 
Mairena,  Fair  of,  141,  142. 
Manetti,  Giannozzo,  68. 
Manolito,  Gazquey,  138. 
Manuel,  Don  Nuno,  109,  219. 
Manzuoli,  Cardinal  Luca,  74. 
Mariotti,  Ferrantini,  89. 
Martinez,  Ferdinand,  81 . 
Martyr,  Peter,  15,  102.  105,   108, 

152,    249,    265,    268,    270,    271, 

273. 

Marucci,  Michel,  87,  88. 
Marzocco,  the,  7,  8. 
Mathilde,  Countess,  44,  70. 
Maury,  163. 
Medici,  Catherine  de',  53. 

Cosimo  de',  5,  6,  42,  45,  116, 

117. 
Giovanni  delle  Bande  Nere,  3. 


Medici,  John  de',  116. 

Lorenzo  de'.    See  Lorenzo  the 

Magnificent. 
Lorenzo  di  Pier  Francesco  de', 

104,  106,  153,  270. 
Piero  di  Cosimo  de',  73. 
Mendez,  Diego,  250. 
Mexico,  182. 
Michelangelo,  9,  20,    43,    45,   55, 

100. 

Michele,  5. 
Michelet,  160. 
Micheli  Marullo,  50. 
Milan,  Duke  of,  91,  96,  97. 
Mini,  Elisabetta,  40,  50-56,  58,  75, 

113,  193;  wedding  of,  51,  52. 
Mississippi,  182. 
Monte  Morello,  26. 
Montereggio,    Giovanni    da,    197, 

213. 
Moors,  expulsion  of,  from  Spain, 

124,  125. 

Morales,  Andreas,  194. 
Morto  da  Feltre,  46. 
Mugello  district,  85. 
Mundella,  Podesta  Otto  da,  47. 
Murate,  Convent  of  the,  53. 
Museum  of  Natural  Science,  23. 

NANNI,  Domenico  di,  76,  80. 
Natives,  Description  of,  221-224. 
Navarete,  262. 
Neghittosa,  tavern  of,  75. 
Negro,  Alonzo,  239. 
Neri  Abati,  58. 

Tomaso  de',  94. 
Nero,  24,  25. 
Nicholas  V.,  42. 
Nicuesa,  Diego,  193. 
Nova,  Joao  da,  234. 
Nunez,  Vacco,  160. 
Nuzzi,  Bernardo,  73. 

OGNISSANTI,  church  of,  13, 279-281, 
284,  285;  convent  of,  13;  piazza 
of,  45. 


INDEX. 


295 


Ojeda,  Alonzo  de,  108,  162,  178, 
179,  190,  192-195,  199-201,  203, 
213,  225,  255,  261-263,  268-270, 
272-274. 

Oleron,  121. 

Or.  San  Michele,  church  of,  19, 
58. 

Orcagna,  6. 

Oviedo,  239. 

PACIOLI,  Fra  Luca,  72. 
Paganino,  Bonafede,  73. 
Paganini,  9. 
Pagliano  Theatre,  6. 
Palazzo  Publico  of  Padua,  149. 

Vecchio,  3-5,  7,  8,  10,  19,  46, 

282. 

Pandolfini,  Agnolo,  49. 
Paolo,  63. 
Parmigranino,  27. 
Pascal,  102. 
Pazzi  Cabal,  42. 
Pedro  the  Cruel,  138,  147, 148. 
Pellegrino,  73. 
Peretola,  40,  41,  55. 
Perseus,  group  of  the,  9. 
Peruzzi,  119. 
Pescia,  95. 

Petrarch,  43,  64,  67,  68,  74,  83. 
Philip  II.,  125,  127. 
Piacenza,  69. 
Piazza  delle  Cipolle,  58. 

Giovanni,  45. 

Manin,  13,  286. 

of  St.  Croce,  44,  45. 

of  the  Annunziata,  30. 

Santa  Trinita,  282. 

Santo  Spirito,  45. 

Signoria,  4,  6,  55,  283. 
Pie  van  o,  tavern  of,  75. 
Pignotti,  Lorenzo,  72. 
Pinto,  Fernao  Mendez,  275. 
Pinzon,  Martin  Alonzo,  190. 

Vincente  Yanez,  160,  163,  190, 

239,  253. 
Pisani,  Niccolo,  9. 


Pitti,  Brindella,  94. 

Buonaccorso,  49, 85,  88-97, 118, 
119,  136;  journal  of,  86-96. 

Fioretta,  95. 

Luca,  85,  95,  96. 

Luigi,  94,  95. 

Neri,  94,  95. 
Pius  II.,  50. 
Pizarro,  158. 
Platonic  Academy,  68. 
Podesta,  7. 
Poggio,  73. 
Politian,  50. 

Polo,  Marco,  169,  274,  275. 
Polverosa,  13. 
Ponte  Vecchio,  3,  29,  98. 
Porro,  91. 
Porta  al  Prato,  44,  45. 

Romana,  97. 

San  Frediano,  44,  45. 

San  Pietro,  282. 
Portugal,  early  voyagers  of,  216-218. 

RAMUSIO,  260,  269. 

Red  Cross,  spezieria  of  the,  75. 

Renaldi,  Buccio,  73. 

Rene  II.,  Ill,  254,  274. 

Riccobaldo  of  Ferrara,  74. 

Robert  of  Bavaria,  97. 

of  Naples,  66. 
Robertson,  261,  272,  273. 
Roland,  Madame,  2. 
Rosebecq,  battle  of,  91. 
Rucellai,  73,  84. 
Ruiz,  Fernando,  147. 
Rustici,  68. 

SAN  CASCIANO,  82,  83. 
Donate,  13. 
Gerninguano,  95. 
Giovanni  di  Dio,  confraternity 

of,   14,  41;   hospital  of,  13; 

arrival  of  a  patient  at,  16; 

monk-nurse  of,  14. 
Lorenzo,  Piazza  of,  44;  church 

of,  75. 


296 


INDEX. 


San  Marco,  cloister  of,  12;  monas 
tery  of,  62. 
Miniato,  height  of,  3. 
Pancrazio,  church  of,  282. 
Petronia,  church  of,  81. 
Simone,  Festa  of,  55. 
Sanchez,  150. 
Sant'  Antonino,  9. 
Santa  Lucia  di  Ognissanti,  41. 

sul  Prato,  13. 
Maria  degli  Angeli,  church  of, 

81. 
Maria  degli  Unghi,  church  of, 

58. 

Maria  delP  Umiliati,  41. 
Maria  Novella,  church  of,  29; 

Piazza  of,  44,  45,  58. 
Santarem,  Viscount  de,  263. 
Savonarola,  8,  43,  62,  100. 
Savoy,  Count  of,  90. 
Scala,  Alessandra,  50. 
Schioppi,  Laura  Brenzoni,  50. 
Serra,  Marchese  Girolamo,  22. 
Settimello,  Arrigo  da,  74. 
Seville,    description    of,    136-138; 
cathedral  of,  144, 145, 185;  church 
festivals  of,  141;  ladies  of,  143; 
society  of,   143;   trade  of,   146; 
watchman  of,  144. 
Sforza,  Cardinal,  152. 
Francesco,  42,  50. 
Gian  Galeazzo,  50. 
Ippolita,  50. 
Sierra  Morena,  140. 
Silvestro,  Domenico  di,  73. 
Sixtus  IV.,  41. 
Society  Colombaria,  68. 
Soderini,  104,  107,  114,  172,  173, 

189,  225,  236,  254,  269,  271. 
Solis,  Jnan  Diaz  de,  110,  154,  163, 

190,  258. 

Spain  in  fifteenth  century,  124-128 ; 

national  dishes  of,  139. 
Spezierias,  75. 
Spina,  Anna  di,  50. 
Squarcialupi,  Antonio,  68. 


St.  Ambrose,  guilds  of  Milan  pro 
tected  by,  47. 

St.  Andrea  Corsini,  73. 

St.  Antonino,  193. 

St.  Catherine  and  St.  Francis, 
Festa  of,  71. 

St.  Denis,  abbey  of,  53. 

St.  Elizabeth,  church  of,  59. 

St.  Gregory,  guilds  of  Naples  pro 
tected  by,  47. 

St.  Justina,  148. 

St.  Louis,  148,  169,  170. 

St.  Michael  of  Alexandria,  monks 
of,  47. 

St.  Michael  of  the  Trumpet,  59. 

St.  Kutina,  148. 

St.  Sulpice,  church  of,  at  Paris,  81. 

St.  Thomas  of  Aquinas,  66. 

St.  Zeuobius,  282. 

Statues  in  Uffizi  portico,  4-6,  8-10. 

Superstitions  attached  to  the  sea, 
167-169. 

TAPESTRY,  Gallery  of,  30. 

of    Florence,    30-37,    129;    of 
Spain,  129-135. 

Tasman,  23. 

Taverns  of  the  fifteenth  century.  75. 

Tell,  William,  23,  24. 

Tertullian,  25. 

Thearion,  53. 

Theatres  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
75. 

Tinghi,  Matteo  dello  Scielto,  86, 
87. 

Tiraboschi,  66,  264,  265,  271;  de 
ductions  of,  concerning  Vespucci, 
265-270. 

Tommasi,  Pietro  Francesco  de',  63. 

Tornabuoni,  Lucrezia,  50. 

Torquemada.  190. 

Toscanelli,  Paulo,  80,  81,  85,  101. 

Trebbio,  76,  82,  97. 

Trinita,  3. 

Trumpeters  of  the  Signory,  59. 

Turin,  University  of,  71. 


INDEX. 


297 


UBERTI,  Farinata  degli,  3. 

Fazio  degli,  73. 
Ubertino  of  Carrara,  149. 
Uffizi,  3,  8,  288. 
Ulloa,  Alonzo  de,  271. 
Umidi,  68. 
Umiliati,  13. 

VALDIPESA,  95. 

Valori,  Bartolomeo,  73. 
Filippo,  73. 

Valsequa,  Gabriel  de,  252. 

Varano,  Costanza  da,  50. 

Varnhagen,  172, 177,  178,  197,  225, 
235,  248,  256,  276,  277. 

Vega,  Garcilasso  de  la,  240. 

Vespucci,  Amerigo,  5,  10,  21,  22, 
26,  27,  29,  31,  36,  42,  44,  67,  69, 
72-74,  76,  77,  79,  82-86,  89,  91, 
94,  97-114,  116-120,  122,  124, 
125,  127,  136-146,  148,  151-159, 
161,  163-169,  171-174,  177-183, 
185-193,  196,  197,  199-216,  219, 
225,  227^  229-233,  235-238,  240- 
242,  244,  '247-281,  285,  289;  an 
cestors  of,  40 ;  arrival  at  Seville, 
122,  136;  battle  with  Indians, 
175-177;  birth  of,  16,  40,  42,  54  ; 
birth-place  of,  13,  49 ;  childhood 
of,  49,  55-59;  departure  for 
Spain,  77-80,  84,  100,  112-116, 
118;  departure  from  Seville, 
154;  departure  on  second  voyage, 
194-196 ;  education  of,  61-64,  66, 
67,  77 ;  favorite  authors  of,  67  ; 
first  voyage  of,  106,  107,  154  et 
seq. ;  second  voyage  of,  108,  197- 
199,  201  et  seq.;  third  voyage 
of,  109,  220  et  seq.,  225  et  seq.  ; 
fourth  voyage  of,  109,  110,  235 
et  seq. ;  fifth  and  sixth  voyages 
of,  241,  242  ;  last  descendant  of, 
26;  letter  written  by,  66;  longi 
tude  found  by,  209-213  ;  made 
pilot-major  of  Spain,  110,  251 ;  on 
the  Atlantic,  163-169;  portrait 


of,  27;  provisions  of,  160,  161; 
sights  land,  172,  173;  sojourn 
in  Barcelona,  121, 136;  statue  of, 
4;  vessels  of,  158-160;  youth  of, 
60,  73. 

Vespucci,  Anastasio,  40,  60,  75-77, 
83,  113. 

Antonio,  98,  258. 

Bartolommeo,  98. 

di  Dolcebene,  40,  41. 

Giorgio  Antonio,  61-63,  67. 

Giovanni,  41,  78,  105,  258. 

Girolamo,  77. 

Guido,  41,  42. 

Luca  di  Messer  Piero,  40. 

Niccolo,  98. 

Piero,  42. 

Pietro,  14. 

Simone,  14. 

Simone  de  Piero,  41. 
Vettori,  82. 
Via  Archibusieri,  3. 

Cacciajuoli,  58. 

Calimala,  58,  76. 

Calzuoli,  58. 

dell'  Oche,  59. 

della  Forca,  15. 

di  Borgognissanti,  12,  14,  41, 
47,  59,  60, 193, 

di  Pilastri,  75. 

Laura,  129. 

Por  Santa  Maria,  283. 

San  Gallo,  76. 

Vianello,  Geronimo,  178,  179. 
Villanuova,  Arnaldo  di,  66. 
Vinci,  Leonardo  da,  9,  43,  99. 
Visconti,  Barnabo,  65. 

Bianca,  50. 

Galeazzo,  64,  65. 

Gian  Galeazzo,  69,  150. 

Matteo,  65. 

WALDSEEMULLER,  253,  254,  276. 
Wheat,  history  of,  17-19. 

ZuffiGA,  146. 


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